Scorpion Warrior
by Michael-Z
Summary: I wrote this story out of sheer boredom. If you want to give me ideas for another villain to put in my story, go right ahead. EDIT: Well everybody, thank you for reading Scorpion Warrior. I hope it was fun to read as it was for me to write it. This story may be over, but a new one has begun. Check out /s/9929122/1/Legendary-Scorpio to continue reading.
1. The Start of Something New

Key: (Voice over) "Talking" **Raised voice** [Metallo's voice] *you'll find out at the end of the story

And now, hero, time to die! *bang*

(That's my life. I'm a hero. But this story doesn't start there. Lets go back about… say… about 3 months to the point that gave me my powers. I was an ordinary high school student. But with one minor difference: I do parkour, so my team and I are pretty famous in my hometown and on the internet. This is where my story starts. My name is Jake Smith. I do parkour wherever I can. Often showing off and annoying my classmates, but they don't hate me. Sure, I'm goofy. So sue me. Anyway, back to my story. I'm 18 years old and my name is Jake Smith. Little did I know that this one field trip would change my life forever.)

"Hey make room!" I said. (We had free time away from the adults, so we found ourselves in the science lab. It was a big room with perfect parkour spots. I wanted to do this real good parkour trick, you know to impress this girl I like, Danielle. Yeah, I know. It's a cliché, but how else do you impress a girl you like? By doing something incredibly half-assed, stupid, and dangerous. What I was gonna try to do is run up the wall on the banister upstairs, jump off and do a large step from the railing, land on the big hourglass in the middle of the room, and front-flip onto the floor where I asked everyone to make room. Yeah that's how popular I was: everyone loved me. So when I tried it, I didn't really think about my weight. Being athletic, I'm at a trim 170, but I guess nobody told the freaking hourglass. I was able to do the whole thing, up to the railing. I miscalculated my landing on the rail. I hit it, but I slipped and belly flopped through the glass, shooting me with the radiation inside. It wasn't like the Hulk, where Bruce Banner got shot and empowered with a whole shit-load of radiation, I was in there for 2, maybe 3 seconds tops, before getting flung out through the other side and hitting the wall on the other side of the room. I survived, thank goodness, but to this day, I still don't know how. Was it fate? Was I supposed to survive that ordeal? Am I destined to have an archenemy?)

"Oh no, Jake! Are you okay? Say something!" My best friend, Eric Murphy, was at my side the second I landed. "No mom I don't want to eat the Brussels sprouts, they're yucky." I said deliriously. "Yeah, he's fine." Eric said quizzically. "EXCEPT HIS FACE!" One of the other students called out. "Hey," I yelled, still a little dizzy. "You might not like me but that's no reason to insult me. Ow… my head…" The local jock, Flash Thompson, is actually one of the few people who doesn't really like me. "No look!" Another kid took her make-up mirror out of her purse and showed me my reflection. There were scratches all over my face. "**WHAT THE HELL?**" Those scratches are deep! But then they just disappeared like the way Wolverine's powers act. "What the hell?" (Yeah, I was just as surprised as you could probably Imagine my face back then.) "Uh… we should leave," One of the other students said. "Guards and scientists will be in the room at any second!" She was right. We got out of there just before the guards got there. "Seal off the lab! We have a containment leak!" One of the guards said.

A few days later at an ATM, I was getting some money out of my account when a mugger comes up behind me and demands I give him every penny in it. "No way, it took me a long time to get to this. I'm not gonna let some asshole without a job take it all in one day." I lied. I mooch off my dad's checks. I'm in high school, what can I say? "WHAT?" The mugger shouts, "give it to me now or else-" Wouldn't you know it, he pulls a gun on me and holds it up to my head. I wouldn't make any bets on whether I'm shit-my-pants scared, cause I'm light-headed-about-to-faint scared. Despite how scared I was, and I bet you expected me to do something, but all I said was, "How about you go and get a job and maybe you'd be able to get some money like me." And he fires his gun at my head. (Yeah I bet you thought that's where the story started. Nope. If you recall, I did say it was about 3 months right? And its only been a few days since my accident. Heheh, now how messed up would it be if I died right there huh? If that bullet went straight through my head and my brain matter was splattered all over the ATM. Well, you were wrong. Somehow, the bullet just bounced off my skull like I had an indestructible metal skull. Kind of like Wolverine. In fact, the bullet didn't even break my skin.) "What the hell is wrong with you, you freak?" The mugger was just as freaked out as I am. "I wish I knew." And now a fight.

I punched him square in the jaw knocking him out cold. I went over to the drain pipe and I pulled it off with my bare hands without struggle. I even twisted it into a pretzel? 'What the hell…?' Well, anyway, I put it around his hands as sort of a makeshift pair of handcuffs and called the cops. After they arrived and took him away, I got the money I needed from the ATM and went to a little diner I saw on the way to the bank. When I got home, and tried to open the door, I took it off of its hinges. "What is going on?" I wondered. I was so tired that night from the excitement at the bank that I couldn't stand anymore and crashed right on the couch.

The next afternoon, I turned on the TV to a news story to find that the same bank I was just at was in the middle of a robbery. "OH NO!" I didn't want anyone to recognize me so I grabbed my BMX outfit, put on the helmet, and biked to the bank. I tried to push my way through the crowd but was stopped by the police. "Where do you think you're going? There's a robbery going on?" This cop was one of my dad's cop buddies. "Are there any hostages?" I asked the cop. I tried deepening my voice so he wouldn't recognize my voice. "Yeah," the cop replied, "But they got there about 12:30." "They've been here for 4 and half hours?" I exclaimed, "Why the hell aren't you guys doing anything? You're the police, you're supposed to do something." "We would if they didn't threaten to kill the hostages." The cop said. "Well, I don't know about you, but I'm doing something. I almost got mugged here yesterday, so I'm going to save those people since you guys won't do anything." I felt good about myself after that. So I went in there fearlessly.

About 10 minutes later, I came out. Robbers in hand. I kicked their asses so hard. I was a hero. I just saved everyone in there. The police came up to me to arrest the robbers. "What's your name kid?" one of the cops asked, "Well, my name is J-uhhh… well for now, just call me the Scorpion Warrior." The cop looked confused. "Scorpion? You look nothing like a scorpion." He was referring to my outfit. "This is only a temporary costume. I whipped this up so no one would recognize the real me." I got on my bike and went home.

Going over the events of the last couple days, falling through that hourglass. Gaining powers? And saving all the hostages at that bank. I'm a hero. I need a costume. (Luckily there was a clothing store in the local shopping mall. Unfortunately its pretty expensive. After getting the materials needed for my suit, I went through all different styles. After about five costume changes, I decided to go with the last one. It's like the Flash's costume, not Flash Thompson, the speedster, except it's more light brown and the mask doesn't have the lightning bolts on the sides or the chest. So, my next task was to see if there was any trouble.)

"What the hell…?" I go to the TV for what's going on. I don't have a police scanner. I'd ask my dad for one, but he'd be wondering what for and getting him suspicious. Trust me, you do not want to get the 15 year veteran Chief of Police suspicious. What I saw on TV was no ordinary trouble, there was a giant flame monster? Is that even possible…? Well it is now. I had to figure out a discreet way to leave my apartment without anyone noticing. I jump out from my balcony to land on the roof across the street, but I don't land. I don't even fall. I'm flying! Oh my god. I'm flying. This is a great day. Well, I recognized the area that that flaming creature was at so I flew off in that direction. I'm gonna need to see a doctor after this but who cares. So after a few minutes of flying, I got to the location. "Oh crap, how do I land?" As if on cue, I fell to the ground. Well, I wouldn't consider that a 2 point landing but I couldn't worry about that right now. The buildings were also on fire too! The fire department was too busy dealing with the buildings to do anything about the fire monster. So, I went and kicked a fire hydrant and, like it normally does, the water came spraying out like a geyser. So I used my foot to aim the jet to the fire monster. That did it because in a few seconds the monster was gone. So then I re-aimed the jet back at the buildings that were on fire and got that out in a few minutes. Soon after that, a crowd gathered around me. "Way to go stranger!" "Yaaahhh!" "What's your name kid?" one of the firemen asked, "My name… call me The Scorpion Warrior!"

After a few months of stopping criminals and foiling robberies, the Scorpion Warrior was popular. Yeah, you saw right. A *few* months. The beginning of where the story started is finally coming. While channel surfing, I noticed there was a news program of a kidnap victim. I recognize that building. That's the old abandoned steel mill.

(There's a little backstory that comes with that place. There was an accident there about 10 years ago and 2 people were critically injured. 1 of them survived with a few burns and bruises, but sadly the other person died. The first person died about 4 years later of a heart attack. The heart attack victim was actually the manager of the building. With nobody else there with enough experience to replace him, everyone who worked in that building eventually lost their jobs. Some of them eventually had to move. Actually, one of the workers moved their family to the apartment building I live in a few years back. I also dated their daughter for a couple months. Now back to the story.)

The leader of the gang who kidnapped the woman says he wants me there or else the woman dies. I was in my costume and out of there within seconds… with absolutely no idea where I was going. I was flying all over trying to look for the building but I couldn't find it. After an hour of flying all over town, I found a big building besieged with police cars. There's the building. When I landed in the parking lot, I ran over to one of the police units and asked them what went on. "The gang leader, Emilio Harris, and the rest of his gang have kidnapped a young woman in her late 20s, early 30s. Her name is Janine Richmond. Emilio kidnapped her about 2 hours ago after she got out of her place of employment." The cop explained. "Okay, I'm going in." I informed him. I ran over to the door and kicked it in. There, just like the cop said, was Emilio, but he was jamming a gun in Janine's temple. "Okay Mr. Harris, I'm here. Just like you said. Now let her go and we can talk about this like civilized gentlemen."

"No I don't think I will. You see, I'm the one with gun. I call all the shots." I hope he doesn't mean literally. "Please don't mean literally. Put the gun down now before you do anything stupid." I ordered. "Not until you follow through with one more demand," while he was talking I backed up to the door and grabbed the doorknob hopefully without him noticing and threw it at him. "You have to take off your- GAAHHH!" He couldn't finish his next demand before the doorknob hit his hand and knocked the gun away. I rushed at him and tackled him like a football player. I released Janine from her restraints and she got out of there before I felt a really sharp whack on the back of my head and fainting. I woke up about a half hour later to him slapping me to get me to wake up. After waking up, he punched me in the face with a set of brass knuckles.

A moment later… "OOOOOWWWWWWW! Good god man, that hurts!" I yelled in pain. "Hah good, I want you to feel the pain." He said. "Oh well I sure felt that!" I was still groggy from that whack to the head, and was too weak to break the restraints binding my wrists and ankles. (There was blood trickling down my face from where he punched me with the brass knuckles, but my advanced healing I told you about at the beginning of the story healed it within seconds but, let me tell you. If you've never been hit with brass knuckles, then trust me when I say it hurt!)

"How come the police aren't doing anything to help me?" I asked. "Because, after you helped to release the girl and I knocked you out, I barricaded the door. They won't be getting inside anytime soon." "I've been out for that long?" He grabbed his gun and aimed it right at my head. "Whoa, put the gun down." "I've wanted to do this ever since you put my brother in prison," I felt my strength finally starting to return to me. "And now, hero, time to die!" He fired the gun.

(What did I tell you? We finally got to the beginning of the story. But this time, the story continues.) "What the hell?" Emilio said in surprise and confusion. "Heh, surprised that I didn't die? Well, a few months ago I was in an accident that gave me near indestructible skin…"

Another gun was fired but it wasn't aimed for me. It was aimed at Emilio. The bullet went right through his head, he fell on the floor. Dead. "Wha… who's here!" I broke the restraints around my hands and feet and got up from the chair. [Hahahahaha] "Who is tha-aagghhh!" I was kicked across the room and slid into one of the old devices in the steel mill. [Hahahaha hello Scorpion Warrior.] "Nnnnghh… who's there?" I asked in pain. The mysterious figure stepped out from the shadows and revealed himself to me. [My name is Metallo and I was watching your "adventures" and it makes me sick. I'm here to destroy you!] "How do you expect to do that?" I asked in confusion. [With this!] He opened up his chest plate to reveal some sort of green glowing rock. "Cool rock," I said sarcastically. "What is it?" [You aren't affected by it?] I could tell by the confusion in his voice that that rock was supposed to do something bad to me. Whatever it was supposed to do, it wasn't working. "Uhh… what's supposed to happen?" [You aren't feeling tired at all?] "What do you mean, roboman?" [This is kryptonite. You aren't affected by it?] "Krypto… you mean the stuff that affects the powers and abilities of Superman? Why does that sound familiar?" (That's right, if Metallo's in this story, then so is Superman bitches!)

[I don't understand! How are you not affected by it?] "Because I'm not from Krypton." [But you have all his powers! Super strength, flight, and indestructible skin!] "Yeah… long story." I grabbed the cauldron that used to be used to heat up steel to be melted into other things and smacked him with it. I guess I didn't know my own strength, because he flew through the wall. I followed him through the hole to see Superman caught him in midair. "Hello there Scorpion Warrior, I see you were able to survive a fight against Metallo. Good job. I can't even get near him without the kryptonite affecting my powers and making me vulnerable. We could use someone like you up in the watchtower." He said. I just sat there, floating in midair, not saying anything. Superman, THE man of steel, was offering me a position in the Justice League. What else could I say? "Of course I would!" He just needed to get rid of Metallo and him and I were teleported to the Watchtower. Up in space. I couldn't believe my eyes. "Holy crap! Are we in space? Holy crap, I'm an astronaut!" Here I was reading superhero comic books and watching Superman, Batman, and all the other heroes save our asses and not even ask for anything in return except for acceptance. So I guess me joining the rest of the heroes up at the Watchtower was my way of repaying them for all they did. "So you heroes know each other's other identities, right? Should I tell you who I am?" I asked. "Not for now." He replied. "Jake Smith." I said. "Just call me Clark. Clark Kent." He replied. That was how my superhero career started.

If you guys liked this, give me another villain and I'll try to make a story surrounding that villain.


	2. I'll Be A Monkey's Uncle

As usual, the key: "Talking" 'Jake's inner thoughts/mental link with J'onn Jonnz' (Voice over)

The Scorpion Warrior Chapter 2

Gorilla Grodd

(It's been a week since my indictment into the Watchtower. Even now I'm still as excited as a nerd at a comic book convention. Wouldn't you be? I'm still learning my way around the place, though. I also learned that there are separate "wings" in the Watchtower. There's a tech wing, which houses all of the technical details of Batman and not so powered heroes like the Green Arrow. There's the magic wing, which Wonder Woman uses to teach her students about magic, and last but certainly not least, is the Meta wing, also known as the wing of the powered. Mainly used by heroes who actually have superpowers, like The Flash and Power Girl, and now me. I must say Power Girl is A MAJOR HOTTIE! She may as well have been Anne Hathaway with superpowers.)

"Hey you're the new kid, uh Scorpion Warrior, right?" (I don't believe it! Just like in school, there's always a really hot, really popular, but really dumb girl and Power Girl is one of them. Not dumb, but REALLY HOT and popular, and she's talking to me!) "Uh yeah, that's me." I almost tripped over my words there. "Your Power Girl right?" I asked. "The one and only. Accept no substitutes, except maybe for my cuz, Superman. We're both Kryptonian you know. Speaking of which, you defeated Metallo right?" "Y-yeah." I stumbled. 'Ugh way to go, Jake. She probably thinks your stupid now. Stupid, stupid, stup-' "Well way to go," she interrupted my thoughts. "Me and Superman cannot go anywhere near him without him opening his chest plate and revealing kryptonite." "Uh well… I'm sorry about your weakness," I stumbled again on my words. "Uh… I'm gonna go with Superman to check out the rest of the Watchtower now. Bye Power Girl." "Heehee later Scorpio." She walked over to me and traced a finger along my shoulders before flying off. "Bye." I said under my breath. 'Dammit. Jake, think your words carefully next time! I'm sorry about your weakness? How stupid is that? You may as well have said I'm a creep and I think you're hot! Ugh, that was so stupid! But… Scorpio…? I kinda like that.'

(Well, all embarrassment aside, lets get back to the tour. Then there's the main wing. That has the monitor womb, the Hall of Heroes, which Superman said that if I play my cards right, I may be able to enter someday, that day is not today since I'm a week into my indictment. There's also the war room, and the broker room. The Watchtower doesn't have bunks though, so after a hard day's work, there's nowhere to sleep, so we have to go back to Earth. How weird is it that they have all this awesome shit up in the Watchtower… okay from now on I'm just gonna call it the tower because always calling it the Watchtower is gonna get a little tiring. Anyway, how weird is it that they have all this awesome shit in the tower but they don't have dorms. Ah just calling it the tower is good. It's not as tiring. Anyway in the main hall, more specifically the monitor womb is a big hologram of the earth. That's where the heroes monitor the earth for any global threats that might put the citizens in peril. Speaking of which, there's an alert right now.)

"What's going on?" Says Superman. "Computer says, "Gorilla Grodd escaped from imprisonment and is wreaking havoc among the citizens of Metropolis"? Are you serious? A monkey has escaped from the zoo? Let me take care of this. All I need is a few bananas and a little time. Gorilla Grodd sounds more like a rapper." I assumed, since I'm an earthling and I loved the zoo as a kid, that Gorilla Grodd was just a little monkey that got out of its cage and was flinging poo at everyone. But I didn't understand why he was on the list of threats to the earth. "Wait kid, you don't understand." Said Flash. "What's not to understand, Speedy, it's a monkey. But I don't understand why it's a global threat. Oh well, all I need are a few bananas and I'll be able to coax this monkey back to the zoo." I was out of there before he had a chance to explain. "Should I go after him?" he asked. "NO. Let him learn his lesson. He'll figure it out. And next time, he won't be so cocky!" said Batman. "Gee Sunshine, are you gonna kiss his booboos?" Superman joked. "Something like that." Batman replied. "He called me Speedy. That's Green Arrow's partner." Flash whined. "Suck it up Flash. The kid's in for something he's gonna regret." Batman's a real ball of sunshine. So after I teleported back down to earth, I went to my apartment to grab some money for some bananas, and maybe a little something for me too. Little did I know there was a monkey across the street that saw me go in the apartment in my costume, then disappeared.

I grabbed the money and got dressed in my BMX clothes with my costume under it. Cause how weird would it be if a superhero was seen at a supermarket buying bananas for a megalomaniacal ape. People would swarm me asking for autographs and I would never get any bananas. I went out the door in time to catch my dad. "Hey dad, going to the market to get some bananas. Be back in a bit." Not long after I left that same monkey climbed through the window and kidnapped my dad. I wasn't there to rescue him cause I was in the elevator and I didn't hear it. After I got to the supermarket, I got the bananas and went back to my apartment to change back into my superhero outfit. I was out of there and off to get "Gorilla Grodd" and put him back in his cage at the zoo. I would be in for a surprise when I get there. I was able to track Grodd by a nasty stench. 'Oh god what is that smell.' How could I smell it all the way from my apartment? Well when I got there, I entered the building expecting to find a lost, scared monkey. I found a monkey all right, a big monkey, a gorilla. I guess the computer really meant Gorilla. But what was with that armor?

"Come on, nice monkey, I have a banana for you. That's a good monkey." "MONKEY!" yelled the gorilla. "Uh… who said that?" I asked, extremely confused. "Me! Do you know how demeaning it is to be called a monkey?" I was just standing there mouth agape. I was flabbergasted at a talking monkey! "Ah so you're the famous Scorpion Warrior. So nice to MEET YOU!" A swift backhand from the monkey sent me spiraling into the wall. "Ow… what was that? A talking monkey and now one that knows how to fight?" I said. "I TOLD YOU I'M NOT A MONKEY! I'M A GORILLA!" He was on a rampage now. "I don't think you should make the big gorilla mad." 'DAD!' That got Grodd calm enough to say, "The human is smart. You should listen to him. Maybe he'll be the last to turn into an ape last." I had a shocked look on my face. "NO! Oh no you won't!" Now that got me started. I grabbed him by the collar and gave him a right hook to the jaw. That much power threw him into the machinery, which he used to retaliate by smacking me with it like a baseball bat hitting the ball.

Somehow that last smack removed my mask. When I got up to attack back, my dad saw that I was the Scorpion Warrior. "JAKE! YOU'RE THE SCORPION WARRIOR!" "Huh? Uh I don't know what you're talking about sir… uhhh…" I just noticed that my mask was torn off. Too bad Grodd noticed that too. "You're that kid that was in the accident at that science lab 4 months ago. How did I not notice the connection?" "Me too. Jake, what's going on?" My dad sounded furious. "I'll explain later." I sent a beacon up to the tower signaling for help. Back at the tower, Flash was at the monitor womb and he saw a help beacon. "It's the new guy." He teleported himself down to my location. "So kid, learn your lesson yet." He asked jokingly.

While Flash was taking care of Grodd, I grabbed my mask and put it back on, even though there was no point. My dad and Grodd already knew my secret. Grodd was out of it by the time Flash was done with him. I went over to my dad's restraints to undo them. "Jake, what is going on here? Who is that man in the red jumpsuit?" "Hello Mr. Smith, names Flash." He replied. "I don't care," my dad said. "You-" "Then why'd you ask?" Flash interrupted. "Let me finish," my dad said. "Were you the one who told my son to become a superhero?" "No sir, I-" "What's going on then?" my dad was furious now. "I'll explain later, Dad, we need to get Grodd back to the zoo. Speaking of which," I said. "This is for my dad!" I punched him in the face while saying that. "Should we go Flash?" "You aren't going anywhere Jake. You," he looked at Flash, "Do what you're going to do with this ape. I need to talk with my son." My dad was madder than Batman on a good day. "I can fly us home, dad." He just ignored me.

We got to the door of the building Grodd used for his lair before I froze. "Well come on Jake, we're going to have a long talk while we're WALKING home." You can't imagine how mad he was now. "I can't go out there. Not like this." I was still in my Scorpion Warrior outfit, sans mask. "Fine," he said. "You go home. I'll meet you there. We're going to have a long talk when I get there. I need to think about what I'm going to say." I grabbed the bananas, put my mask on, walked out the door, and, before I took off, I took one more look at my dad, then took off. When I got there, I decided to take a nap. A few hours later, my dad finally got home. He slammed the door, which woke me up pretty abruptly from my nap. "Dad, your all sweaty. Did you walk all the way here?" I asked.

"No Jake, I took a taxi and after I got back, I decided to run around the complex for the next few hours while waiting for you to get here." When my dad gets sarcastic, then he's at his angriest. He calmed down and asked me how long I've been doing this. "About 4 months." I replied. "And when did you first get these powers?" he asked. "About the same time." I replied. "So for four months, you were this Scorpion Warrior person?" 'Would you like me to erase his memory Jake?' 'No J'onn, its better this way, did you erase Grodd's memory about my identity?' 'Yes. He has no memory of your alter ego.' "I don't know what to say Jake." My dad said completely defeated. "I do. Dad, I got these powers for a reason. I'm using them to help fight crime. Let me continue to fight crime. I won't get hurt." I said. "Well that gorilla seemed to hurt you pretty good." "One of the fellow superheroes erased his memory of that whole time so now he doesn't know that I'm… this." I told him while pointing at the costume I hung on the wall. "Well why doesn't he erase my memory so I'll forget that whole thing happened. I was almost turned into a monkey because of the fact that my son is a superhero." He replied.

"In my defense, he wants to devolve humanity. It's not just because of me. That's why I need to fight crime. To stop super villains like Gorilla Grodd from hurting you, or the rest of the world. I was given these powers to help the world, and maybe the universe, and that's what I'm going to do. I don't care what you do. Go ahead and take my bike away, I can fly. Ground me? That won't stop me from doing what I did to save you from being turned into a monkey. Thanks to me, humanity can sleep at night knowing that they aren't monkeys. I will be a superhero. That's my decision to make, and mine alone." That speech helped change his mind. "Okay Jake. Go ahead and keep on fighting crime and saving the world," He said. "I'll support you as much as I can." "Thanks dad." I said. "You know if you're a superhero, why don't you wear a cape?" We both laughed. "Too flashy," I replied. "Plus a cape would only drag me down."

I got up to go to the tower, but before that, my dad stopped me. "Being the chief of police is a dangerous job. When I was on that table, I felt helpless. I'm… sorry about chewing you out, Jake." He sighed. "When your mother died, I got a bit overprotective. We caught the guy who hurt her, but I never really felt any better."

When I got back to the tower, Batman was there and ready to do what my dad did and chew me out. "Flash talked to me and told me what happened. But if you go down there without any knowledge of any of who you're going up against, you're going to get yourself killed." "Oh please I can't be hurt. If I do get too hurt, I have advanced healing that'll fix my injuries." I said. Without warning, he punched me right in the jaw. "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR!" "I was making a point." He reached down and wiped blood off my lip. "You see this? This is your blood," I wiped my mouth and saw it. "If I can do that much damage to you, who knows what Lex Luthor or the Joker or Bizarro or Solomon Grundy will do to you. Superman is invincible." "Not when he's in the presence of green kryptonite." Flash interrupted. Batman gave him a look. "Whoops I'm outta here." "Anyway, Superman is invincible. Super girl and Power Girl are invincible. You are not. You can get killed believe it or not. That almost happened with you today when you faced Grodd." "But it didn't," I implied. "I knew what I was getting into and called down Flash, didn't I?" "Well what if we aren't here? We can't be here to save you whenever you're in trouble. You were lucky Flash caught the warning and helped you. You went down there overconfident and cocky and you didn't listen to Superman's warnings." Batman told me.

"I know Bats, and I'm sorry. I *was* overconfident. I *didn't* realize what I was going up against. I will try to be a better listener." I felt defeated after that talk with my dad, so I bet you'd know how I felt after this. "Next time someone threatens the world, let me tell you who they are and what they do before you go off into a fight." I guess Batman wasn't as mad as I thought he would be. I guess my dad beat him to the punch. I sighed. "I know Batman. I am sorry that I didn't listen. My dad already chewed my head off, so there's not much left for you except all that." I said feeling depressed. I guess he saw and eased up. "Let me help you by teaching you. You can't depend on brute force all the time. You need strategy." He got up and put a hand on my shoulder before walking off. "Batman," he turned. "Thanks." "Call me Bruce." He replied.

"Boy," said Flash, "you got off easier than I thought." "That was easy? He punched me." I said. "First time when we teamed up and I messed up, he chewed me up, and crapped out the remains. You got lucky buddy." That didn't make me feel any better, but I knew that for the rest of my superhero career. But something kept bothering me about what my dad said. I hopped back down to the apartment to catch him heading out the door. "Dad? What aren't you telling me?"


	3. Wide Awake Nightmares

And once again, here is the key: "Talking" 'Jake's inner thoughts/Mental communication' **Comm **(Voiceover) *Chapter Villain's epic voice* {Riddler-bot's voice} INTERCOM

Chapter 3

Scarecrow

**Jake, its Superman. The Riddler that you were fighting, he can't be defeated because he's a robot. This Riddler is a robot. Ask IT a riddle that has an answer it probably can't comprehend the answer to.** Superman said over our comm links. "Little busy at the moment Superman, can you come up with it?" I said hurriedly.

(Yes, it's the truth. I'm fighting a robotic version of the Riddler. Yeah I know, its weird. But Luthor sent it after me in an attempt to trick me into defeat with a tough to answer riddle. When I gave it one that made it actually think of the answer for, it went insane and started attacking me.)

**Okay I got it. Say this,** "Ok Riddler-bot, I have a riddle for you. Stop attacking me and I'll tell it to you," that made it stop attacking. "I make people fall, but I don't leave a bruise. Some people won't come near me afraid they will get hurt. I am often mistaken for something else. I am very popular, that even books and movies have been made about me. What am I?" {Answer found. Answer does not compute. What is love?}

(Okay so I guess it didn't go boom like I thought it would, but that last riddle did distract it long enough for me to finally go on the offensive.) I flew up and tore its head off and smashed it on the floor. I took the rest of the robot and flew over to the bay and dropped it in, letting pressure do its work. When I got to the tower, someone hacked into my comm link. It was from the Riddler himself. **Well hello, Scorpion Warrior, I never knew anyone would be able to out-riddle one of my Riddler-bots he said over the link.** "Who are you? How did you get into this comm link? This is supposed to be a private line between members of the Justice League only." 'Wow I can't believe I was actually able to say that!'

(I'm still giddy about being a member of the Justice League.) **I'm gonna give you a riddle every once in a while just to test you. Starting now: You're flying over a river and you see two boats both heading east, but one boat is heading up the river and the other is going down the river. How is this possible?** Says the Riddler.

"Well let's see here… a bird's eye view, two boat are going east. One boat is going upstream, the other downstream. A river only goes one way, so in order for both boats to be going the same direction but going on the different directions of the streams, then they'd both have to be either going up or downstream, unless there's a bend in the river." The Riddler got a pissed off look on his face. **Oh go to hell.**

"Hey Jake, aren't you supposed to be in school today?" Superman asks me. After the fight against Robo-Riddler, I figured I'd chill in the Watchtower's kitchen. "Naw, not till tomorrow." I kicked my feet up on the table eating a bowl of Chinese food. Orange chicken, fried rice, chicken dumplings, and a few egg rolls. You just gotta love being a member of one of the greatest superhero teams in the world. "So today's a holiday then?" He asked in confusion. He took a bite of one of the egg rolls. "Yeah buddy its called the weekend!" I said in excitement. I threw my hands up and just about fell back in my chair and spilled the bowl. "Since when was Monday part of the weekend?" "Wait… what…?" I asked him really scared.

"Today's Monday, Jake. So unless there's a holiday today, then you should probably get going." He said. My eyes got wide. "OH CRAP! I HAD A TEST IN 2ND PERIOD AND I MISSED IT! DAMMIT!" I slammed my head on the table and the bowl slid to the edge of the table, but the chopsticks slid off. "Its 1:30 right now. Dammit, I missed my first 3 classes and it's almost the beginning of my fourth. Ugh… I must've pulled an all-nighter fighting the Riddler-bot. Okay, I'll need to teleport somewhere in front of the school, but out of sight where no one would suspect me. Oh great another riddle… lets see. Oh okay. I'd need to teleport into a bathroom." I teleported into the bathroom. Surprisingly, there were no people in it. 'Cool, I guess I won't get exposed after all.' So I left and sprinted to class. 'Too bad I don't have super speed.'

I ran by my crush Danielle making out with the captain of the football team? How cliché… "Uh… hi Danielle. Who's this?" I asked, sort of feeling as bad as when my dad and Bruce both chewed me out after my fight with Grodd. "Hey Jake, this is the captain of the football team, he's also my boyfriend. Jake, Flash Thompson, Flash, Jake Smith." Feeling really awkward, I took his hand and sort of squeezed it, not knowing my strength and I sort of crushed it a little cause I was feeling jealous. "AAH-OOW! What the hell is wrong with you freak?" He yelled in pain. "Nothing, I've just been working out." I lied, not wanting to give away my powers. "Why didn't you try out for the football team then?" He asked. Seems like he's not mad at me about almost taking him out of next season. "You wouldn't have wanted me. I suck at football. I gotta get to class now." I walked towards class feeling very awkward.

"Jake wait, where were you during 2nd period? We had a test today." Danielle told me. "Don't remind me. I was sick all weekend, and I didn't want to miss the rest of the day… I just got to school now." I'm getting pretty damn good at lying. So I went through the rest of the day in my last 3 classes and learned that we had graduation coming up in a few weeks. JAKE SMITH TO THE COUNSELING OFFICE, JAKE SMITH TO COUNSELING.

"Oh Jake, before you go, there's going to be a final in this class. I'm afraid if you don't pass it, you won't be able to walk with the rest of your graduating class. You have a C- minus in the class. If you fail this final, you can't walk. I'm sorry." My teacher said. "Gee what a thing to say to anyone about 3 weeks to graduation Mr. Canton." I said sarcastically. He knows I wasn't serious though, which is good. He was one of my favorite teachers. JAKE SMITH TO THE COUNSELING OFFICE, JAKE SMITH TO COUNSELING. "See ya later Mr. C. Better go before they blow out the intercom." I said. "Don't forget." My teacher said.

Up at the office, the counselor reminded me that I missed a bunch of days the last few months. 'Cause of the Scorpion Warrior.' "Okay, I'll try not to miss anymore school. Bye Ms. Palmer." And I was out of there. The last 3 weeks went by like a breeze. I kept my promise to Ms. Palmer and Mr. Canton and I got to walk with the graduating class. All the students walked around and chatted and visited with each other. Even Clark was there to congratulate me. "Way to go Jake." He said. "Thanks."

(So my crush on Danielle ended. I graduated high school and moved out of Queens and into Metropolis to go to the local university. I'm majoring in English since that was one of my best subjects in high school. I'm also taking it because of the cute girl who's taking it too, Brenda Henderson. And after a few months I got a B- on my first midterm… well that's college for ya, the tests there are about 20 times harder than they were in high school. Hey at least I was able to take a test this time, because half the time I have my hands full dealing with crime in the city. I didn't have a job yet, so I wouldn't have been able to afford first month's rent on any apartments in Metropolis. That night, I had to go back to my dad's apartment and stay there.)

"You know, I could get you a temp job at the force. With your powers, you could help stop riots all over Gotham and Metropolis." My dad suggested. "Dad," I responded flatly. "The whole point of wearing costumes is to keep your identity a secret. I use any of my powers and there'll be more than just a riot." "Ah, I see. Well, you need a job don't you? You don't expect to live here for the rest of your life right?" He asked. "I'll get a job… eventually… Bruce pitched in and helped me with my school supplies so I'll have to pay him back eventually. Maybe I could work at The Daily Planet with Clark."

There was a call. "Yeah, Eric." My dad said as he answered the phone. "Yeah, I'll tell him." He turned to me and said, "There's been a rash of civilians claiming nightmares… while awake." I was really confused at that point. "Nightmares while awake? What does that mean?" I asked him. "I don't know. It's real strange. Some of the cops are in Gotham and Little Bohemia so they're out of action." He said. "Little Bohemia? My college is there! Whoever's doing this, it's the Scorpion Warrior's problem now. I have to go down there and see what's going on!" So at that point I warped up to the tower. I was speeding off to look for Batman to see if he could help me. "Whoa Jake, where's the fire?" Asked the Flash when he saw how fast I was running.

"There have been people down at Little Bohemia that had reported of having nightmares while awake. I might not have bothered with it but my dad told me after he got the call that it was in Little Bohemia. That's my school." Batman heard the whole thing and said, "It's the Scarecrow." "It's the what?" I asked in surprise. "Dr. Jonathan Crane aka the Scarecrow." He informed me. "What does a scarecrow have to do with this?" He grabbed my shirt and told me almost exactly what he told me after I came to the tower after I stopped Grodd.

"Don't forget what I told you Jake! Don't judge anyone by their name. This scarecrow uses psychoactive drugs to induce nightmares in his patients. Nightmares while they are awake." "He already attacked Gotham City. Everyone there's going insane. You'll need to develop an antidote for Gotham. Give me a gas mask. I'll go fight the Scarecrow. He attacked the city I'm going to college at. It's personal now. Don't try to stop me Bats I will fight him. I don't care if I go through the same shit that he puts all his victims through. If he hurts anyone at my school, if he hurts my friends, or if he hurts my father, he will pay. I. Will. Kill. Him."

I got changed into my Scorpion Warrior outfit, put a gas mask on, and teleported to Little Bohemia. I was searching for the epicenter of his attack on Little Bohemia when someone noticed me and screamed about a giant scorpion. That sent everyone into a frenzy and running this way and that way. That made my search for him a whole lot harder. In all that confusion, someone struck me on the head and knocked me out. I woke up after what felt a couple hours.

*Well hello Scorpion Warrior. You're awake I see.* I heard a distorted voice talking to me which sounded like the way a judge will electronically distort a witness's voice if they want to be kept anonymous. I was groggy from being knocked out, and I couldn't stay conscious for long and fell asleep again. *No, no, we can't have you falling asleep now, can we? Wake up.* A sharp slap across the face woke me up, but I was still groggy. My gas mask wasn't on my face so I was afraid about that.

*My name is Crane, Dr. Jonathan Crane.* "You… are… him? Batman… warned me… about you." I was really groggy, so I couldn't do much. My strength was completely drained too. I just had to sit there and let him do what he wanted… for now. Looking around, I saw that I was in some sort of hospital setting, but it was the infirmary. I groaned because my head was hurting. Sort of ironic, as I was in the infirmary. "Urgh… my head hurts. Can I get some aspirin?" I tried holding my hand out to get the pill, but it was handcuffed to the armrest, as was my other hand.

"What kind of infirmary is this? I'm… handcuffed… to a chair? Some… southern hospitality." Despite my condition, he gave me the aspirin. My head finally started to clear up a little bit. "If you hurt anybody here…" I started to say what I said to Batman. *Oh no need for threats.* He said, *I want to give you a therapy session. I just want to take a peek into your mind. Now, what are you afraid of?* He asked. Afraid. Since becoming the Scorpion Warrior, I lost all my frights in order to conquer evil. But what I was most afraid of, and unknowingly said aloud, was failure. *Failure? Now that's odd. Atychiphobia? So you have an irrational fear of failure? I do not understand. If you are afraid of failure, what made you want to become a hero?* Now I could think clearly, but my head started hurting again for some reason.

"Its not that I'm afraid of failure like that, I became a hero to stop that." I don't understand, what was bad about this dude? He seems like an ordinary psychiatrist. All of a sudden, Batman comes crashing through the window and kicked Dr. Crane in the face. "What are you doing?" I asked him as he came over to unlock the handcuffs. "Didn't you remember what I told you? Jonathan Crane is a mastermind. He uses hallucinogenics to render his patients insane." He said. "Yes, Bats, I remember you saying that. I was actually looking for him. Someone noticed me in this costume and freaked out calling me a giant scorpion. I got knocked out. So technically I was kidnapped." I told him. But then I started to feel dizzy and extremely nauseous.

*Well Scorpion Warrior, it's too late. That pill I gave you wasn't aspirin. It's really a slow acting hallucinogenic. You should be going insane right… about… now!* As if on cue, my vision started to fade, then I fainted. *What was that? None of my patients are supposed to faint. That's interesting.* "What are you talking about, you psychotic freak!" Batman asked him in his usual cheerful disposition. *I don't know… none of my patients have had reaction before.*

Batman put Dr. Crane in handcuffs and shot a rocket with the antidote to Dr. Crane's hallucinogenic gas up into the atmosphere, which started snowing. He had already taken care of Gotham City with his own fast acting antidote. He placed an emergency pick up beacon on Dr. Crane for pick up to Arkham Asylum and took me back up to the Tower to get me into the medical wing. About 4 days later I finally woke up. With a massive headache. I guess I failed to heed Batman's warning about underestimating my opponents cause when I woke up, he was standing over me with a disappointed look on his face.

"Don't worry," he said. "all the students and faculty at Metropolis University are okay. Some of them were worse than others so they were taken to a hospital. The ambulances got them there in time so they were healed within 2-3 days. The ones that weren't affected as bad were cured almost instantly. I shot a rocket that had the antidote to this certain strand of Crane's poison into the atmosphere which started raining around the surrounding area." He informed me. "All your classmates are safe. He never got to your friends or your family. Get some rest, I'll wake you up in a few hours to check up on you and see how you're doing, but it seems like you'll do fine. I'm really disappointed that you didn't take my warning in heart when you fought Grodd." He turned around and started to leave but before he left, he said, "But you didn't get hurt too bad. Be on your guard cause we may not be able to get there in time to save you and you can't depend on us to save your ass every time you get in over your head."

"I survived Metallo, didn't I?" I asked him. "Okay, you didn't get killed by one super villain alone. Grodd, you called Flash in to save your ass, I had to bail you out with Crane. I'll see you in three hours." "Wait, Batman…" He stopped walking. "Don't forget, I just barely started my superhero career a while ago. I'm new to this and I'll do better with time. Eventually, I won't even need help. You'll see, I'll make a name for myself." He hesitated, then left without saying another word. J'onn replaced him.

"I secretly scanned Crane's mind. During the time you were unconscious and when you woke up, he could've been able to take off your mask and see who you were. He did not." I breathed a sigh of relief, but that still didn't balance out the fact that I failed Bruce again. "Good-bye, Jake." J'onn said as he got up to leave. "Try to heed Bruce's suggestion." Then he left me alone with my thoughts. I fell back in the bed and decided to try to go to sleep again.


	4. Bizarre Days

Disclaimer: This chapter is dedicated to all the people reading this who lost someone close to them. Whether it was a good friend, or a relative. I haven't lost anyone close to me yet, but a friend of mine lost his grandmother recently. I'm not exactly sure if Jake's reactions at the end of the chapter are the real thing. You'll find out what I'm talking about at the end of the story. I actually started to tear up while writing the end of this. So, for anyone who lost someone real close to you, this chapter is for you.

Edit: Recently, my grandma passed away a month or two ago. So… yeah.

Why ruin a good thing? Here is the key: (Voiceover) "Talking" 'Thinking' **Bizzaro/Raised voice** -Comm link-

The Scorpion Warrior

Chapter 4

Bizarro

I woke up in the hospital wing bed with a huge migraine. I hoped that it was a residual effect due to the radiation. But that wouldn't make sense; I had that accident a year ago. For it to come back after a year, that's interesting. No, one of the medics told me it was a side effect of that drug Crane gave me. "Oh god… my head feels like it went through a wringer… 50 times."

Bruce walked in and tossed me an apple. "I thought you might be hungry since you didn't have anything to eat since the "fight" with Crane." He said. I didn't even look at him. "I heard that Bats," I said flatly after taking a bite of the apple. "He kidnapped me. I didn't know where I was. I didn't know who was there with me. My head hurt from the blow so I asked for aspirin." I was gripping the apple quite hard. Somehow my stomach started hurting so Bruce put something into the medical tube attached to my hand and that helped it calm down. "You're new to the superhero business, so I'll make this simple: stop messing up, and don't keep depending on us to bail you out." "You already gave me that speech Bats," I said. "You don't have to keep telling me!"

"YOU MESSED UP TWICE!" He yelled at me. The heart-rate monitor close to skyrocketed because that really scared me. "I GET IT!" I snapped back. I fell back in the bed and rested my hands on my face. "Bruce, I get it already. I'm new to this whole superhero business I know that! Stop lecturing me…" After a few seconds of awkward silence, he got up and left. That time I definitely crushed the apple in my hand this time I was so mad. –Hello Scorpion Warrior, ready for another riddle?- I grabbed my comm link and said, "No Nygma, not in the mood right now." And hung up.

After I got all my strength back from resting, I went on patrol to clear my head from earlier. There was a bank robbery. "Ah… time for Scorpion Warrior to go to work." But this wasn't an ordinary one; the freaking safe flew through the bank doors! "WHAT THE HELL?" I ran over and saw a zombie. "Hey!" I yelled as I was running over. He heard me and backhanded me right to the building across the street. "Yeah… yeah, that hurt." I punched a hole in the wall and got myself in there so I could change into the Scorpion Warrior. Thankfully the building was empty, I flew through the hole in the wall as the Scorpion Warrior and tried to fight him. I got him good with a flying punch, but he grabbed my leg and threw me to the ground and slammed his fist right back into me. "Nope… THAT hurt."

My migraine came back and it was hurting more than ever, but I had to try and tough through it. I picked myself up and grabbed a part of the asphalt and bashed it over his head. As if that did anything. "Oh crap…" He threw his gorilla sized fist into my gut and sent me flying across the street again. "How can I fight an unstoppable… zombie? I tried the head. But would a steel fist work?" I unstuck myself from the building and flew around him like a fly. I was hoping the confusion tactic would work. He almost caught my leg. "Crap." I landed between his feet and kicked off ending with a double uppercut. Then, while already in the air, I followed up with a roundhouse kick right to the jaw. That sent him staggering over the edge. I flew under him and pushed a kid that wouldn't move out of the way. "It's Batman!" The kid called out.

Batman came swooping in like the big bat that he is. "What happened?" "Oh hey Bats, you just missed a great party. I almost died and blew my cover to fight a bank robber who almost dislocated my legs." He looked at me in amazement and said, "Good job defeating Solomon Grundy." "Solomon Grundy? From the fairy tale?" "I will say this, not very many people are able to do that. Quite a few Green Lanterns had trouble too. Nice try keeping the collateral damage low though." He said. Grundy was sent off to Arkham Asylum and we warped to the Watchtower.

"Now do you recognize me as a hero yet, Bruce?" He didn't answer. "Hello? Space to Bruce." He stopped and I got in front of him. "Why the hell won't you recognize me as a true hero yet?" I asked him hurriedly. "Let me give you some advice Scorpion Warrior…" he said. "Is it the same crock you gave me last time? You don't need to give me that again… I know." A left hook to the eye definitely shut me the hell up. "OW! What the hell was that?" He grabbed my costume by what should be the collar and said, "WILL YOU SHUT UP AND LET ME FINISH? You don't need MY recognition. You have fans. Do you really need one man's recognition?" Hearing him say that, I almost forgot what we were talking about.

"All the people down there in front of the bank who watched you are all the recognition you need. Why do you need me to recognize you?" "Superman, Power Girl, and even the Flash all recognize me, even my own dad. Why can't you?" I said. My voice returned to normal and he let go of me. "Fine, you're a hero. Happy? Superman and Power Girl recognize you for your defeat of Metallo. They can't go anywhere near him. The Flash is easy, and your father's a cop. Me, on the other hand? I'm very, VERY difficult to impress." He told me.

"What do you want me to do?" I asked him, my voice nearly rose again. "Tell you what, defeat Darkseid and Doomsday and maybe I'll recognize you. And put something cold on your eye." "Maybe I will do just that." I said under my breath. (Like that'll happen.)

I teleported home and saw my dad sitting on the couch. "Hey dad…" I said, a little down. "Don't "hey dad" me. Where have you been the last 4 days?" He demanded. "I've been worried!" "Geez, when did you turn into mom?" I walked over to the freezer. "Scorpion Warrior got drugged, so I had to spend a few days at the medical wing up at the Tower. Do we have any ice or something?" I asked. "Why do you need ice?" He asked back. "Well… I stopped Solomon Grundy from robbing the bank in Metropolis…" I said. "So?" He interrupted. "I was getting there. I stopped Grundy from robbing the bank, and here comes Sunshine to chew me out. Grundy goes to Arkham and we go to the Watchtower. I try to get him to recognize me as a hero. His response…" I show him my black eye. "What happened?" He asked. "He flips his cowl." I make like a punch to my eye and turn back to the freezer. "Where are the peas?" I grab them, sit on the couch, and put them over my eye. "That's better."

"I'm gonna go to the store and grab some milk. Want anything?" He asks. "Root beer?" I respond. "Looks like I might have to get a triple 12-pack this time." He said sarcastically. "And peas." I hold up the bag of peas. (You cannot even begin to imagine my love for root beer. Last time, I drank 5 cans in an hour. I was so hyper that night that I didn't sleep for two days. My best friend and confidante, Eric Schultz, and I had a burping contest; it was close. And speak of the devil.)

A few minutes after my dad leaves, here comes Eric. He knows about the Scorpion Warrior. "Hey," He says. The peas and I waved back. "So, I don't know if you know this, but I transferred to Metro University." "Get out." I replied. "No, I won't. I'm in Metropolis University!" He was real excited about us being classmates again for the first time since sophomore year of high school. "So do you have your own apartment yet?" I asked him. "Aw sorry man. No, not yet. I'm still moochin' 'til I can afford to move out. The Daily Planet may pay good money, but it'll take at least a few months before I can get enough to pay first month's rent there." He said. "Well, I could apply there. I could move in with you. With a combined pay, that should be good enough." I said to him. "Deal." We shook hands as if he was my landlord giving me a lease. "So what's with the peas?" He asked me. "Solomon. Grundy." I replied slowly.

Three months later, we became a team. He did the bylines, I did his editing, we both get credit, we both move in to a new apartment within a month. It was also walking distance to the university. Bonus! Life could not get any sweeter.

A few days later I got a call. "Jake." I answered. "Jake! Help!" "Eric? What's up?" I was about to joke with if he got stuck in Final Fantasy, but he was urgent. His voice was a loud whisper. "I picked up a lead for a drug ring inside a gang hideout. I got in over my head! Bizarro found out this place and everyone else cleared out!" He said. He sounded really scared. "Stay where you are! I'm coming to rescue you!" I said. "Hurr…" The call cut off there. "Eric? Eric! Oh crap!" 'What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? The Watchtower!' I teleported up to the tower and saw Green Arrow there. "Green Arrow! Thank god you're here! My friend's in trouble!" I told him hurriedly. "What do you need?" He asked. "He called me trapped in a building by Bizarro and I need to know where." I told him. "Alright, give me your phone. This should only take a second…" I handed him my phone and a few seconds later we got the location.

I immediately got changed into my Scorpion Warrior outfit and went straight there. "ERIC!" I yelled for him. "ERIC ARE YOU HERE?" Then Bizarro comes busting through a wall and grabbed me as soon as I turned around. **You will die!** He yelled. "Ugh… not unless your breath beats you to it." (That's how bad his breath was. It was enough to kill me right there.) That was a bad idea, because the second I said that, he threw me back down to the earth. That hurt. "ERIC…! If you're here, stop being here!" I yelled for him. **Your friend's not here.** Said Bizarro. "Oh good." I said. **I don't think you understand, he's dead.** He said. "HE'S WHAT?" I was really worried. **Yeah.** I got up and went over to where he was pointing. "**ERIC?**" His charred remains sat where Bizarro pointed. He was burned alive. Tears started to form in my eyes. I turned to Bizarro with a pissed off look on my face, "**YOU KILLED HIM? YOU BASTARD! I'LL KILL YOU FOR THAT! I'LL KILL YOU!"** I screamed at the top of my lungs.

I lunged toward him and tried punching him, but he caught my hand and threw me out through the wall and into the wall of the building across the street. He flew towards me and punched me square in the gut; I coughed up blood. He grabbed me by the throat and threw me up 500 feet in the air. "I… can't forgive you!" I caught myself from falling, then flew down towards him, letting gravity take over and speed me up. He flew up towards me with equal speed and we punched each other's fists, creating a shockwave which destroyed all the glass in a 50 foot radius, and sent him soaring to the ground. I did a pile driver move right to his torso, then I started decking him in the face. There was a huge crowd forming around us. In between the punches I was saying, "THIS… IS… FOR… ERIC!" I would've dealt the finishing blow, if not for the combined efforts of J'onn, Superman, Supergirl, and Power Girl stopping me.

"Stop Scorpion Warrior. Its over!" Superman said. "NO! LET ME GO YOU GUYS! SUPERMAN! HE KILLED MY BEST FRIEND! HE HAS TO PAY!" I started screaming again. I tried to break free of their grasp but they were stronger than me. "LET ME GO! HE NEEDS TO PAY!" I screamed. I was still trying to struggle free from their grasp, but they had me. J'onn, Power Girl, and Supergirl kept me still so Clark could talk to me face to face. "Jake, look around you!" I was still trying to break from everyone's grasp. I SO wanted to kill Superman's doppelganger for what he did to Eric. I recognized a kid as the same one I rescued from getting pancaked by Solomon Grundy. When I rescued him, he was so happy, but now… he had the most scared face I've ever seen and his mother picked him up and walked away. I saw the most disgusted look on her face. My face changed from pure rage to that of sadness and confusion. "It's over."

We teleported up to the Tower and Supergirl, Power Girl, and J'onn let go of me and left us alone. I fell to my knees and tore off my mask with tears streaming down my face. "Jake, your friend is gone. Killing Bizarro won't bring him back." Said Clark. Tears were still streaming from my eyes. He wrapped his arms around me and I just cried into his costume. Later that day, I went over to Eric's parent's house to break the news. They were heartbroken. That was the hardest thing to do. They didn't know my dual identity, and for good reason too. Their son's best friend snapping and almost murdering someone in cold blood. I could only imagine what they would've done. I had to tell them the biggest lie that I told anyone in my whole life.

Next week was Eric's funeral and I was asked to deliver a eulogy. The funeral was closed casket, so nobody could see what he looked like. The image was burned into my memory like I saw it five seconds ago. I had to tell his parents he was lost at sea because of a boating accident. I had to tell them that I went below deck and he slipped and called for me, but I couldn't hear him. I felt so much worse. His friends and family were still able to pay their final respects though. I just hope they don't open the casket. "Eric was my best friend since fifth grade. We were closer than brothers. There were a lot of good times we had. I wish I could've saved you…" Tears started to build up in my eyes again. "But…" I took a deep breath and tried to choke out the words, but I couldn't.

I stormed out of the funeral home as fast as I could cause I couldn't be there anymore. I was sitting outside with my head buried in my hands, bawling. It still felt like it was yesterday. "I'm so sorry, Eric… I hope you forgive me." My voice was breaking worse than when I went through puberty. "I'm sure it wasn't your fault." I heard a familiar voice; one I needed to hear. It was Brenda. I was finally able to calm down and took my head out of my hands, so I took a deep breath. "I'm so sorry… I truly wanted to help him…"

She walked over and sat next to me. "I know about you and Scorpion Warrior, Jake." I looked at her, really surprised. "Y-you do?" "Of course. You have the accident back in Queens, then a little bit later, Scorpion Warrior comes on to the scene. I just tried so hard not to blurt it out in the middle of class on your first day." I was able to crack a smile then. "Why are you telling me?" I asked her. I was still confused about why she was telling me. "Because with your best friend gone, you don't have anyone else to confide in, and I was hoping you'd be able to confide in me." She replied with these eyes that made me think she was in love. "Besides… I think it would be cool having a superhero boyfriend." I was really confused there, but starting to get a little bit of what she's saying. Before I was able to say anything, she kissed me. "I've had a bit of a crush on you since I heard about you."

"By the way, how do you know Eric?" I asked her after I thought for a second. "I'm his cousin. My mom is his dad's sister, and… I don't blame you for what happened to Eric." That made me feel a little better. A tear ran down my eye. "I almost killed him…" I mumbled to myself. "Who?" "His killer… he was tracking a lead for a drug ring for the Planet… Bizarro, his killer, blasts in and clears out the gang. My guess is, he was trying to be Superman, but… I don't know." I explained to her. "Scorpion Warrior didn't get to him in time, Bizarro blasted him with his own heat vision, charring Eric alive." "What'd you do?" "I fought him. I was just about to deal the final blow… I was so close too. If it wasn't for Superman, his cousins, and the Martian Manhunter, I might've killed him…"

She gave me a big hug, which gave me the courage to go back in and finish my eulogy. It went off but not as bad as before.

A couple days later, I was hanging out at the Watchtower. "I'm very disappointed in you, Jake." Batman said to me. I took a deep breath. "I couldn't help myself Bruce," I couldn't look him in the eye. "Bizarro murdered my best friend." "Everyone was scared of what you did." "I understand that… but seeing Eric's body there… something just snapped. I wanted Bizarro dead." Bruce was trying his best not to yell at me, but I could tell by the tension in the air that I was messing that up as bad as I messed up downtown during the fight. "Do you know how that feels?" I instantly regretted saying that, but I was covering my face with my hands and he didn't see. "Thomas and Martha Wayne were gunned down in front of me when I was little." I took my face out of my hands. "I know… I know. That just came out. My dad told me about that case, his father was just starting on the force." Bruce looked at me with a raised eyebrow.

"What I'm saying is I'll try to be a better hero." I said to Bruce, and then later to a crowd during a press conference as Scorpion Warrior. "I recently lost a uh… close friend and confidante and I confronted the killer, Bizarro, quite a bit harshly. If it wasn't for my fellow superheroes to take me out of the tunnel, so to speak, I wouldn't have been able to see everybody's faces and what I was about to do. I am truly sorry and I don't expect any of you to forgive me for what I've done…"

I was about to walk away when I heard a little kid call out wait. I turned back to the crowd to see the familiar face of the little kid that I saved last week run up and hug my leg. I picked him up and he wrapped his arms around my neck. That gave me the biggest smile on my face. "Please don't stop helping us Scorpion Warrior." I walked back up to the podium and spoke into the microphone. "I'll try hard to be a better superhero for the citizens of Metropolis. That is a promise!" The audience applauded for me while I was waving to them. The kid threw his fist up in the air and gave an overexagerated "Yeah!"


	5. Thanks for the memories part 1

Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's the key! "Talking" 'Thinking' **Chapter Villain's voice** Comm Link (Voiceover) _Flashback_ –Radio –

The Scorpion Warrior

Chapter Villain: David Cassedy

I didn't make this villain up

Credit goes to lordfrieza

It's an awesome villain idea too

(It was 2 weeks after Eric was killed. Instead of taking it out on the rest of my friends and family, I go to the gym and beat the shit out of the punching bag. I go through like two or three bags. It's also a good way to keep in shape. I was getting a little on the large side after that cause all last week I was inside our apartment, wallowing in self-pity because of the fact that I couldn't save Eric. My dad would come over every once in a while to bring me groceries so I wouldn't starve and to make sure I was still alive. That's what kind of helped me over my funk. He sort of pointed out that I was getting fat. _Jake where I lived before moving to Queens, I lost one of my close friends too. _He said. _Was it a hostage situation?_ I had asked him. _No,_ he said, _drunk driver. When I lost him, I was bummed. But then I realized I could help people so they don't have to feel my pain. My friend was also somebody's son, brother, cousin, and/or husband and father. _He told me. _But I'm the Scorpion Warrior,_ I reminded him. _I'm already helping people. But, I wasn't taking it too seriously. I almost lost myself after that. I could've hurt somebody. I would've killed Bizarro if Superman didn't stop me._ I told him. _But now you DEFINITELY have a reason to help people, so they don't feel your pain. _He said. _I should've realized that when I first found out your secret. But instead of taking your frustrations out on the bad guys and beat them half to death, take your frustrations out on the punching bags at the gym. Besides, you're also getting kind of fat. You haven't been outside in a week. Hit the gym._ That's what gave me the inspiration to go outside again. Well one day, when I was at the gym, a thief came in demanding that everyone get down on the ground and the cashier give him all his money. I was purposely ignoring him. And now to the story.)

"HEY," the thief yelled at me. "You at the punching bag!" I turned around. "You talking to me punk?" I went back to the punching bag. "Yeah you. Get down on the goddamn ground NOW!" "Hmm… no I don't think I will." I said sarcastically. "Why, you smug little son-of-a-bitch!" He walked over to me and grabbed my shoulder, intending to turn me around probably to shoot me. Instead, I turned around and gave him a swift left to the jaw. "I'm the son-of-a-bitch? You're the one robbing a gym. No offense to all of you lying on the ground but you're all a bunch of pansies. Here you are working out at a gym. Someone comes in with a gun and you're all "Oh my god he has a gun, aah someone help us!" No. I got robbed once so I'm doing something about it," I grabbed the back of the robber's hair and said, "THAT'S why I'm not listening to you!" I then gave him a knee to the chest and he fell on the floor knocked out. Everybody got up and cheered for me. A cop car finally came and the officer that came to arrest him was actually one of the cop buddies of my dad who knows my secret. I picked up the robber and gave him to the cop. "Jeez Jake, why didn't you leave him conscious?" He asked. "Oh don't worry. I held back this time." I said. "This time?" The cop asked confused. "I'll tell ya later." I said. On my way to The Daily Planet I was deep in thought. 'So that's what my dad meant by taking my job as a hero seriously. This robber could've seriously hurt someone. Those people are idiots though, not doing anything about it.'

I got to the Planet and sat down at my desk. "I'm sorry I have to do this Jake," Clark said, "This is kind of awkward, but could you write the obituary? The person the obituary's about is Eric, and you're his friend and all…" He asked. "Just please get out of my face before I get mad at that request." I said. I wrote the obituary and after a few other reports, clocked out and went home. The next morning, I got a call on my comm link from the Riddler. Hello, Sc- uh where's the Scorpion Warrior? Who are you? He asked me. "He's not here, my name's Jake. What do you want?" I asked. If he's not here, how do you have his comm link? You aren't him, are you? Cause you sound like him. He said accusingly. "Well I'm not okay?" I snapped. Well, fine crabby. He said. "Look, I just had to write an obituary for my friend yesterday. He died a few weeks ago and it was really hard. So I'm not in the mood to talk to anyone." Well, SORREE! Don't take it out on me! You think its hard coming up with riddles to try to best the Scorpion Warrior? And here you are using his comm link. With that, I hung up.

Brenda came over so we could hang out. That cheered me up. We started dating around a week ago. Jake, are you available to help out with a situation? Clark asked over the comms. "Not really Clark. Kind of busy." I told him. Well this involves the whole Justice League, and that includes you. He said. "Go," said Brenda, "I'll wait." "Why does it involve me?" I asked over the comm. Because you're a member of the Justice League, aren't you? He asked. The museum got robbed and none of the guards can remember what happened. He informed me. "Well can't Bruce join you?" I asked. Because whatever's affecting the guards is also affecting him too, and I'm also your boss at The Daily Planet so I guess that kind of works out in my favor too. Don't you think? I completely forgot he was my boss. I would just report to the head editor. Also, this is good field practice for you. You need to get some pictures and interview possible witnesses. Clark informed me. "Oh fine, Jake out. Will you really wait Brenda?" I asked her. "Of course. I have class in half an hour anyway so I'll wait." She said. I went into the other room to change into my BMX outfit. I grabbed my camera bag and notepad and biked off to the museum. "You're dressed like that?" Clark remarked about my outfit. "Either this or be about 3 hours late. I live about 3 hours away. I grabbed my camera anyway. So it doesn't look like there are any witnesses. Lets ask a guard. Speaking of which, what happened to Bruce anyway?" I asked him. "I don't know. He's at the hospital right now, so we'll ask him when we get there. Lets go in." He said. "Hey, my dad's here. Uh, dad, what's going on? Who called it in?" I asked him. "The museum curator called it in. He also said none of the employees clocked in at all. Whatever happened didn't miss a beat." He informed Clark and me.

3 hours ago: Also, this is good field practice for you. You need to get some pictures and interview possible witnesses. Clark informed me. "Oh fine, Jake out. Will you really wait Brenda?" I asked her. "Of course. I have class in half an hour anyway so I'll wait." She said. 30 minutes later, Brenda was walking to her class. When she was done with it, which was about 2 hours, she had time to kill so she walked around the campus thinking about the time she'll spend with me, not even paying attention and running into a guy by accident. "Oh I'm sorry sir." She said. "Watch where you're going next time." The guy said, kind of mad. "Hey I said I was sorry. You could accept my apology!" She snapped. "Yeah, or I could just sap your mind!" He reached out and covered her mouth with his hand. She tried to scream for help but to no avail. The only thing she could do was reach down and activate her emergency beacon, then she fainted and the man walked away from her. Up at the tower, the Flash was watching the Monitor Womb when a little blip appeared on the hologram display. When Flash pulled it up, it revealed it to be registered to Brenda. "Oh god, somebody contact Jake!" My comm link started ringing, it was Flash. "Hey Flash." I said. JAKE, glad I caught you. I think Brenda's in trouble. "WHAT! WHERE!" At Metropolis University. Paramedics have been notified. They'll probably be there as soon as you get there. As if on cue, I heard an ambulance. I started chasing after it, catching up to the driver almost immediately. Was this another power cause I don't think I've ever run this fast. Anyway I knocked on the window, and the paramedic rolled down the window. "Yeah?" He asked me. "Are you on your way to Metropolis University?" I asked. "Yeah, you?" He asked me back. "Yeah my girlfriend attends there." I answered. He unlocked the door and said "Get in." I opened the door and got in. "Brenda Henderson is my girlfriend." We got to the university in about 10 minutes and me and the paramedic tried to push through a crowd to get to her. "BRENDA! ARE YOU OKAY!" I asked her frantically. I picked her up and helped her into the back of the ambulance. "Make a hallway people!" I yelled and everyone made room. (She seemed so freaked out, the look on her face made me freak out. Almost shit my pants, break my heart freaked out.) We got to the hospital but while the way there, I was trying to talk to her. "Brenda, are you okay? Its me Jake." The entire ride there, she was looking at me with a face that said she couldn't recognize me. We got her to a room and my dad caught me. "Hey Jake," he called for me. "What's going on?" "Dad, my girlfriend was attacked and I think her memory was erased. I'm not sure what's going on though." I said frantically, almost tripping over some of my words. "That's the fifth one right now." He said. "Was Brenda the fifth?" My dad took me to another victim's room. "There's been a series of attacks. Starting with the museum guards. That made three. Brenda's the fifth. I took a trip down to Gotham because there was an attack just like this. Bruce Wayne, the multi-millionaire, was the third. Jake, I'd like you to meet one of the museum guards," I looked at him expecting a formal introduction. "He doesn't know his name," He looked to the amnesiac guard. "So for now, we'll call you John." "Why don't we just question the museum curator?" I suggested.

Once again, as if on cue, my dad's radio went off telling of another attack victim. It was the museum curator. But this time, instead of just a memory wipe, he was put into a coma. "Has any of his family been informed yet?" My dad asked the person on the other end of the radio. –One father, 81, in a retirement home in Connecticut for the past 14 years. A wife, 53, a brother, 45, 2 daughters, aged 33 and 23, and a son 27. The son died about 2 years ago. The 23 year old daughter is a surrogate mother for the 33 year old sister due to her ovarian cancer that prevents her from having children. The 23 year old daughter already has a 2 year old of her own.– "Thank you." My dad said. –That was over an hour ago. In which time, the coroner already finished her examination. She told me that there were no internal injuries, no drugs, nothing. The museum curator didn't even have a heart attack.– "So what about his head?" My dad said. –It's still really weird. The MRI showed no brain activity but it was still alive. We have some technology that goes into the subconscious and shows whatever memories they have, even ones that they've forgotten. So we tried that, there were no memories at all.– My dad gasped and said, "Get that machine down to the Metropolis ER ASAP! I have a theory, and it also involves Bruce Wayne. So get him down here too." An hour later, the machine and Bruce were both transferred to the hospital. (It looked like an ordinary MRI machine. It would've been exactly that too, had it not been for Clark urging Bruce to make a pretty good donation to researchers and scientists to develop the machine to be able to detect and replay memories on the little monitor. Bruce explained to me one time, but he was using a whole bunch of overly complicated mumbo jumbo, so I spaced out and started daydreaming. Plus I'm not even sure why he was explaining it to ME in the first place.) Our first John Doe was put up onto the machine, no memories. So he felt the full force. The second John Doe and the Jane Doe were then loaded onto the machine one after the other. They were in the same condition but the Jane Doe felt the least of the attack, so we at least know her name. Caroline Monroe. Next was Bruce and Brenda. 'OH NO! They know I'm The Scorpion Warrior! What if– ONO ONO ONO!" I was so nervous because they both know who I am, but I couldn't show it. All I could do was, unfortunately, hope that they're memories were erased, for both mine, and Batman's sakes. 'Oh thank goodness.' Fortunately, same as the two John Does and Caroline, they're memories were wiped too. They don't know Bruce's, or my, identities. I left the room to go wash my face so I could think. 'That's 6 victims today. TODAY! Those 3 guards, the two unknowns and Caroline, Brenda, Bruce, and now the museum curator. What does it mean. WHAT'S THE CONNECTION!' Without thinking, I punched the mirror. 'OH SHIT! That was a loud noise.' I shook the shards of the mirror out of my fingers so my healing factor could kick in. I heard a knock at the door. It was my dad. "Jake, are you okay in there?" He asked me. "Uh yeah dad, I'm just thinking." 'I won't be able to think my way out of a broken mirror. But still, what is the connection?'

To be continued


	6. Thanks for the memories part 2

In a world full of chaos, one key decides to step up and organize: "Talking" 'Thinking/mental communication' (Recap) Comm link

The Scorpion Warrior

David Cassedy

Part 2

(Before I begin this chapter of the story, why don't we have a little recap so that those of you reading this chapter don't have to go back to the last chapter to read it. I was at the local museum helping Clark Kent, my boss at the Daily Planet, figure out a robbery at the museum when I got an emergency call from the Flash. Someone attacked my girlfriend Brenda, Bruce Wayne, and 3 museum guards and the museum curator. Now I'm trying to rack my brain to see if there's a connection to any of the villains that have threatened Gotham City and Metropolis. Now to the story.)

I was back in Caroline's room to see if she could remember anything. "I'm sorry, I can't remember what his face looks like." She said. "Well, that's okay. I'll let you get some more rest." I said. Before I left the room though, she continued, "Wait, that's not exactly true. I couldn't see his face. There were stripes on his face." "His face was covered with stripes… bandages?" I asked. "I guess that's what it was." She said. "Thank you." As I was leaving the hospital, I was talking to J'onn through mental communication. 'So J'onn, does that sound familiar? Is that one from your species?' I asked him. 'Could be. We can't steal memories. Whoever this is must've mastered a new technique, is from the future where they all mastered that technique, or is of a different species entirely.' Hmm… I decided to give my dad a call to see if he knew anything about it. "Hello?" He said on the other end. I was on my way back to the museum to get my bike. "Hey dad, its Jake. Can you talk?" I asked. "Yeah, I'm on my way home. Did you get any leads?" He asked me back. "Yeah. Caroline was able to remember something about the attacker. She said he wore bandages." I informed him. "Bandages on his face?" He asked in surprise. "That sounds familiar. Looks like I'm taking a detour to the station. I'll get back to you."

When he got inside the police station, he went immediately to one of his cop buddies. "Hey Jimmy, Jake got a lead on the memory stealer. It sounds familiar." He said. "People who have bandages on their faces typically suffer from burns so he's probably a victim of either third degree burns inflicted in some way, like a fire." Jimmy informed my dad. My dad got a look on his face like he just got an epiphany. "I need you to cross reference burn victims with all the burn victims for all the hospitals in Metropolis." There were a little over 1000 search results. "Now narrow down the search to the last 45 years." The results then went from 1000 to about 150. "We're getting somewhere now. Change 45 to 30." 25 results were yielded. "30 years to 20 years. 1 result! That must be the guy!"

The second he realized that he called me. "Jake! It's your father! We got some results." He started reading off the victim's sheet. "About 20 years ago there was a fire. There were also two people in there, a mother and her son. The mother didn't make it, but the son miraculously survived. He was released from the same hospital recently that Brenda, Bruce, and Caroline are currently at right now." "Is there anything else? A name? An MO?" I asked him. "No," he said. "He doesn't seem to have a criminal record. His name is David Cassedy." My dad informed me. "What about the fire. How was it started?" I asked. "Well, arson investigators believed it to be an inside job. But there wasn't enough evidence so the case was dropped."

David Cassedy. A disturbed man who's intellect is only matched by that of Lex Luthor. He led a poor childhood. At 15 years old, his mother Lorine Cassedy became pregnant with David by her best friend. Unfortunately, Lorine was unaware of this curse she had that would practically suck the essence out of whomever she had emotional contact with. Her best friend, Robert Stiller, was the victim of that curse. She sucked out his entire essence. He would still live, but he was like an empty shell, a robot made of flesh and blood. She hated what she had become, and then began to hate her own child for it too. When David was born, Lorine raised him, but was distant from him. When he grew, he realized that he attained a portion of his mother's abilities. Not all of them mind you, but a portion of them. He could copy, and possibly absorb information, which spread into being able to absorb information from books and computers. When he was 10, David was already "reading" at a college level. Lorine noticed this, and realized that she didn't give him all of her curse; she decided to get near him. David understood why she had done what she had. Why she alienated herself from him. He was so filled with rage that he threw a kerosene lamp against the wall of one of the house and set it on fire. His mother would try to escape, but to no avail. David used his knowledge to trap her. She tried escaping through the front door, but she hit a trip-wire, which caused a bookshelf to fall on her and trap her. She never made it, but he didn't count on the fire department to rescue him. When he was 'healed', or whatever he thought they called it, David began to "gleem", or absorb, information from Sherlock Holmes books. It was then that he found a character, Professor James Moriarty. David began to think like the infamous villain and that's where he started his life of crime. What his mother did to him is where his hatred of all metas came to be. To rub it into the face of the most famous meta in existence, he has based his most recent base of operations in Metropolis. David and Luthor have worked together on some occasions.

'So,' I thought when I got back to my apartment. 'This David person has no MO, so he's a serial attacker. Could he be behind the attacks?' I got a call on my comm link. Could this be the guy? "Hello?" I asked as I answered the comm. Hello Sc-oh come on. You again? It was the Riddler. This is twice now that I tried to contact the Scorpion Warrior and here you are. Oh my god, you are the Scorpion Warrior. He said. "UH… no! No I'm not… what makes you say that?" You're seriously asking me how I came up with that assumption? I'm the Riddler. I come up with tough riddles. I was a little confused as to why you came up when I tried to contact the Scorpion Warrior, but when I tried to contact him again, here you are again. Now I know. You are the Scorpion Warrior. "You're good." I admitted. Don't worry, I won't spill. "You better not, I'll have the Martian Manhunter wipe your memory." No need for threats, I'm a man of honor. Now onto the riddle: A magician was boasting one day at how long he could hold his breath under water. His record was 6 minutes. A kid that was listening said, "that's nothing, I can stay under water for 10 minutes using no types of equipment or air pockets!" The magician told the kid if he could do that, he'd give him $10,000. The kid did it and won the money. Can you figure out how? "That's a tough one." I said. Do you give up? The Riddler asked real smugly. "Uh…" I was hesitant to say yes, and was almost about to, but then I figured it out by looking at a bottle of water on my table. I grabbed the bottle and put it above my head and showed it to the Riddler, expecting him to know what I was doing. What the hell are you doing kid? He asked. "Oh seriously?" I said. "The great master of riddles doesn't know that I'm currently doing the answer to that riddle? The kid held a glass/bottle of water above his head for 10 minutes." You really are good. He said.

"Now, I need your help." I told him. "There's been a series of attacks. The attacker is someone who has bandages on his face. Bandages on a face are normally standard for someone who's suffered facial burns. In the last 20 years, there has been one person who fits that description. This serial attacker keeps bandages on his face to keep his identity a secret. Is that a connection?" It could be. I'm not exactly sure. Said the Riddler. And with that, I ended the comm.

'J'onn, are you sure you don't have any idea of what's going on?' I started another mental link with J'onn. 'Again, no. I am sorry, Jake.' He replied. 'Well, do you think you'd be able to go into the minds of the victims and find something?' I asked. 'No, the MRI monitor already said their memories were lost. So there's nothing I can do.' He said. 'I wish there was something I could do.' What do you know, my comm link is ringing again. "Riddler?" I asked not knowing who it is. Hello Jake, or are you going by the Scorpion Warrior? The voice on the other end said. "*gasp* Who are you? How do you know who I am?" I asked the voice in shock. I've only entrusted a few non-superheroes with my identity. My dad, his cop buddies, well indirectly, Brenda, Eric, The Riddler, but I have my doubts about him. I'm not sure the Flash knows who I am though. He's a fast-talker and he may accidently spill so I doubt I'd tell him. Are you surprised that I know who you are? Just call me David Cassedy. Said the voice. "You're the man who was released from the hospital weren't you. How do you know who I am?" I asked him. I have sources. Now if you want all my victim's memories returned, you will reveal your identity to the world. Or I will do it AND keep the victim's memories. You have 48 hours. He said threateningly. "YOU'RE THE MEMORY THIEF!" I asked in even more shock, he hung up. I attempted to call back but there was no signal. He destroyed his communicator. I just sat down and tried to think about what I should do. 'J'onn any ideas?' I asked J'onn. 'Well, you may be able to hold a press conference, a lot of people in attendance.' He said. 'Wow that's really helpful. I meant, any ideas to help me?' I asked him. 'I was getting there. What WE do is, I'll put an invisible layer of energy around your head, that way he won't be able to read your thoughts. I'll morph into you, and discredit him right in front of you.' He said. 'That's genius!'

To be continued in part 3


	7. Thanks for the memories part 3

Aw, I can't think of a snappy key introduction. Oh well, here's the key: "Talking" 'Thinking/mental communication' _Recap_ [Note from the writer] Comm link

The Scorpion Warrior

David Cassedy

Part 3

[Before I start the story, how about a recap again? This is part three of Chapter 5 of the Scorpion Warrior. _In the last part of chapter 5, David Cassedy contacted Jake Smith, aka the Scorpion Warrior, and gave him an ultimatum: Jake either has to reveal his identity to the world and David will give all the memories he's stolen from all his victims. Or David reveals his identity to the world but he does not return the memories he's stolen from his victims. Let us see what Jake decides._]

'I have a better idea. Why don't you transform into the Scorpion Warrior, and lead the crowd, and ultimately David, on. While at the same time, scanning the crowd.' I suggested. His original plan was to transform into me and place a layer of energy around my head so David won't read my thoughts. But I think my idea is a little better. [Sorry about that any Martian Manhunter fans]

So here we are, at the location where David wanted me to reveal my identity. We're doing the thing in front of the statue of Superman. I hope we can pull this off. So J'onn morphed into me and started the speech. "Hello people of Metropolis. It's me, the uh Scorpion Warrior. I'm here because, uh, someone close to me is in trouble and in order to get her out of trouble, uh, I need to…" He was saying all the uhs because we didn't really plan out a speech. He was just winging it to stall for time so he can scan the crowd to try to find where David Cassedy is. 'Jake, I found him. Third row, person on the far right.' He must've been able to read J'onn's thoughts because as soon as he told me that, he booked. "You'll never get me!" He screamed as he was running. I appeared from behind the curtain and gave chase.

We got to the outskirts of the city. "Crap, I lost him! No, there he is. YES! DAVID GET BACK HERE!" He got inside the place he used for his lair and tried to lock it. "Seriously, buddy? You're trying to lock it?" I kicked the door in. "I'm the Scorpion Warrior. No lock can keep me out of a building." I grabbed his collar and shoved him up against the wall. "Now memory-thief, give back what you stole from everyone!" "Never!" He said to me and out of nowhere, I felt a sharp pain in my stomach, he punched me. And it's not like an ordinary fight I've been in. This time it really hurt. I doubled over in pain, and next thing I know he knees me right in the face. I tried to get up to fight back, but then he kicked me right in the face sending me down a flight of stairs, to what I guess looks like his basement.

"Scorpion Warrior, help me out of this." I opened my eyes and tried to look at where the voice came from. "Wh-what, who are you?" I asked her. "My name is Kiivita, I am a Thanagarian. P-please help me!" When I got up, and at that point the door gets thrown off its hinges and slams into me. "NOOOO!" Shouted Kiivita. "You SHUT UP Thanagarian! Or else you'll get yours." David threatened.

My face was battered and bruised, with a bloody lip, bloody nose, black eye, a cut all along my forehead which healed up instantly. He grabbed me by the throat and said, "Hahaha I've been watching you, and I know how you fight." He threw me off to the side, then walked over to me and kicked me in the ribs. "AAAHHHH!" I screamed in pain. "You won't be able to defeat me! I WILL KILL YOU AND THE REST OF THE WORLD'S METAHUMANS!" He screamed in apparent triumph. "Ergh… wh-why d-do you hate m-metahumans?" I asked him, while coughing up blood.

David kicked me in the ribs again. "Oh wouldn't you like to know? Oh what the hell. I'm gonna kill you anyway so you might as well know. It was because of my mother, that hateful BITCH! She had a curse similar to mine, but worse. She alienated herself from me because of what I am. What I can do! I never realized it at the time. When she finally came close to me due to our powers not being in the same degree, I was furious. I was the one that caused that building to catch on fire. I was severely burned on my face. They saved me, but they couldn't save my face. That's… that's why I still wear these bandages on my face." He took them and the hat off to reveal his face. It was almost like Deadpool, it was horrible to look at.

"After I got out of the hospital, I wanted to end it. Until I picked up a Sherlock Holmes book. He had an archenemy," He said. "Professor Moriarty. I was able to relate to him. Then, at that point, I decided to start my life of crime. No, I didn't want money or jewels, I wanted knowledge. I also wanted revenge! My mother alienated herself from me because of this curse, these powers." He kicked me in the ribs again. "I will have my revenge against her." He kicked me in the ribs again. "By destroying all the metahumans in the world. Starting. With. YOU!" He kicked me in the side when he was saying those words. "Please… stop this…" I pleaded. I remembered J'onn's powers. 'Ergh… J'onn… y-you need to help me.' He grabbed me by the throat and started choking me. "Oh your friend won't be able to help you."

I was almost about to pass out when all of a sudden, his face changed to that of fright. He loosened his grip, and I dropped to the ground gasping for air. "W-what's the matter David? It looks like you've seen a ghost." He was grabbing his head and freaking out. "What, WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON YOU SON OF A BITCH! THERE ARE THOUGHTS FLOODING MY HEAD!" He screamed in pain. "That's my friend J'onn J'onzz's special power. Right now, he's removing the limiter on your powers. All the thoughts of everyone in the whole world are flowing into your head. You can't do anything to stop it!" I told him. "Aargh! No, no, NO! STOP! I CAN'T HANDLE THIS MUCH!" He dropped to his knees screaming in pain. "AAAHHHHHH!" Looks like he absorbed much more than he could handle. Somehow, there was a huge light surrounding him. It was making me go blind.

When the light disappeared, David was laying on the ground. I got the strength to get up and walk over to him. "David? David, are you okay?" He came too and started shouting, "PLEASE DON'T HURT ME!" "David, are you okay?" I asked him. "Wh-who are you?" He sounded really nervous. "David, its me." I took my mask off. "It's okay, everything's gonna be alright." "Jake?" He asked me real nervously. "Yeah, don't worry. Everything will be alright. What's your name?" I asked him. "M-my name is-is David Cassedy. Oh god, I've been a fool! I hope you forgive me!" 'J'onn, he's almost alright. Come pick him up and take him to the hospital.' "Kiivita, are you okay?" I asked her. "No, I don't think so. I might need a hospital too." J'onn came down, and as he was reaching for David, he started screaming bloody murder. "NOOO! DON'T COME NEAR ME!" "J'onn, can you knock him out? He's giving me a headache." J'onn gave David a look and he fainted. Then he grabbed him and told me he would take him to the hospital. I went over to Kiivita and tried to break her restraints. "Aargh, what's this made of?" I asked in frustration. "I heard him say it was Nth metal." She told me. "Oh great, that's all but unbreakable. Oh, I know." I grabbed my communicator and called Clark. "I'm gonna need Superman to help me." I told him. Okay, I'm on my way.

A few minutes later, he got to David's lair. I turned to Kiivita and said, "If anyone can break it, it's Superman." He used his x-ray vision to see where we were, he saw we were in the basement, but he also saw something else. He ignored that for now and went down to where we were. "What do you need help with?" He asked. "It's the restraints around the Thanagarian's wrists. Its all but unbreakable. Can you help?" He used his heat vision to superheat the chains, then ice breath to supercool the chains. One punch later, and the chains crumbled.

"Thank you. Both of you." Kiivita said. "Both of us?" Superman asked. "I saved her from David Cassedy. He was the memory thief. I was almost dead, but I got the idea to have J'onn remove the limiter on his powers." He was looking me over while I was saying all that. "Jake, you're seriously hurt!" He said. "Well, that's what I get for being a hero. I hope David's okay." I said. Kiivita grabbed my shoulder and said, "You hope he's alright? He almost killed you! Why would you hope for his safety? On Thanagar, we execute those who do us harm." "Maybe so, but here on Earth, we hold restraint. I forgot that and almost killed someone." I said regretfully. "I saw something strange with my x-ray vision upstairs." When we got up there, Clark was going towards the spot where he saw the strange thing he said he saw. When he opened it, it turned out to be a shrine dedicated to Supergirl. "What do you say we burn down this place?" Kiivita suggested.

(My ribs started hurting from that repeated kicking, so I teleported up to the tower, and checked myself into the medical ward… again. But this time, I was so banged up that I needed to be in a special tank that fills up with fluid to help speed up the healing process. I got in there and next few days were complete and total boredom. When I got out, I was feeling pretty good. I decided to visit Bruce and Brenda in the hospital. I was excited when I heard that they got their memories back. They still had to spend a few days in the hospital to make sure no residual damage was gonna happen. I went to check up on David but one of his doctors informed me he fell into a coma and passed away while I was recovering.)

"What's interesting though is what happened though…" The doctor said. "He was the memory thief. He caused Brenda, Bruce, Caroline and the other museum guards and curator to lose their memories." I told him. "Oh my god, really?" The doctor asked in surprise and slight shock. "He also didn't have any family or friends. So he has no next of kin." I told the doctor. "Oh that's kind of sad. He didn't have anyone to call a family and he died alone." He said, sad. "Well, thanks doctor." I said.

(Yeah. That's the story. David's dead. In some ways, that's actually a good thing. If his powers flared up again, he wouldn't be able to steal other people's memories again. A few days later, his body was cremated and his ashes were buried. Its kind of ironic seeing as how he was saved from fire and now he was cremated. I go to see him every now and then and drop a flower by his grave. He wasn't truly evil, he was just misunderstood. He lived as he has died. Sad and alone. If he had any family, things may have turned out differently. Despite all the stuff that happened to him, and me, I kind of feel sorry for him.)


	8. Demons demons everywhere

Key: "Talking" 'Inner thoughts/mental communication' (Voiceover)[Note from the author]

The Scorpion Warrior

Chapter 6

Brother Blood

"Jake, can I talk to you?" Brenda asked me while we were sitting on the couch, watching a movie, with her head on my shoulder. "Yeah…" I said. I was a little worried. Normally, when people say that, especially in the tone that she was saying it in, you could tell something was up. "That attack made me think about our relationship." She said. A look of nervousness showed up on my face. "W-what are you talking about?" I asked her. "I don't think I can have a relationship with someone with enemies like that person that can steal memories." She told me. "But I beat him… just barely though, but I beat him." I told her. "I know that but I don't want to risk anything like that anymore, so I convinced my parents to let me move to Florida. I'm sorry, but I can't handle a relationship with a superhero. I'm sorry, but I'm breaking up with you." She said. Tears started to develop in my eyes. "But, I thought we were going good." I said. "That was before that last attack. It could get worse than that," She started tearing up too now. "I'm sorry, please don't make this any longer than I hoped it would be." And with that, she left. That was it. Eric is dead, and now his cousin left me. I tried running out of the apartment to chase after her, but she was already in the elevator by the time I caught up. "Please don't do this." I said to her. "I'm sorry Jake. I have to do this. For my safety and sanity. Please stop!" Tears were definitely streaming down my face. I just fell to my knees, defeated. What else could I do? If I tried going after her against her wishes, she might accuse me of being a stalker. Or worse. So I just walked back to my apartment, bummed out of my mind. I went back to my apartment and flopped on the couch.

A few months later, Brenda has long since left. She was doing better and she really loved it in Florida. She never came back to Metropolis since she left. Eventually I felt better about her dumping me, and my life essentially went back to normal, or as normal as my life has been since the accident. Karen Starr, aka Power Girl, even offered to take me out to dinner during that period of depression. That sort of helped. There is one good thing about being with another superhero though. You both have secret identities and you both kick butt. Eventually we started dating too. And about 8 years later, we got married. No, I'm kidding. I'm not going that far… yet. I decided to go on patrol to try to forget about Brenda. Nothing happened, so I just went back home.

When I got back to my apartment complex, I went to check my mail. But there was someone around the corner waiting for me. "Hey buddy, name's Jake." I said to him. "Yooooooouuuuuuu looooookkk ." Said the stranger. "Whoa what now?" I asked in complete surprise. "Dude, if you're a cannibal, stay the hell away from me." I told the stranger. "Coommmee 'ere!" He lunged at me and I could tell by the look in his eye that he wanted to eat me. I dove out of the way before he was able to grab me. "COME HERE!" He screamed again. I grabbed the planter next to me and hit the stranger in the head. It actually took his head off but before it hit the ground, the head and the body both disappeared in a puff of purple smoke. "What the hell just happened!" I asked in shock. "Jake, you there? Its Cyborg." Cyborg, aka Victor Stone, came barreling down the sidewalk. "Yeah," I responded. "Yeah I'm here." "Oh good, you're all right then." He said. "What do you mean?" I asked him. "Do you know what's going on?" "Yeah," He said. "Its Trigon. He's trying to break through the dimensional barrier." I looked at him with confusion on my face. "What in the hell is a trigon? Sounds like a shape." I said. "Well this Trigon is no mere shape. He is actually an interdimensional demon who's constantly attempting to break through the dimensional barrier and take over the earth. This is the kicker: He's Raven's father." He told me. "Was she adopted? Cause she looks nothing like the way you described this Trigon dude." I told him. "No, Raven is Trigon's daughter. Raven is the opposite of Trigon. Now back to what I was going to tell you. That thing you just fought was a physical manifestation of one of his sin demons. What that was was Gluttony. That was a physical manifestation of the sin gluttony."

"The different sins have found a way to give a physical body in our plane of existence?" I asked him in disbelief. "Not exactly. Trigon's influence is transforming people into what each of the 7 deadly sins represent." A look of shock showed on my face. "Is something wrong?" He asked me. "If you said that this Trigon demon's influence is transforming people, I JUST BEHEADED SOMEONE DIDN'T I! But then he disappeared in a purple haze…" I said freaking out. "No. That must've been an actual demon representing gluttony." He told me. I could now breathe a sigh of relief. "We can't just stand around and do nothing." I told him. "I'm gonna do a little investigating and see who's behind the attack." He said. "I'll do my best to whittle whatever army his influence is creating." And with that plan, Cyborg left. I went up to my apartment to get into my Scorpion Warrior outfit and get ready for the war against this Trigon dude. When I got to my apartment, I found it trashed and the words "TRIGON WILL SEND THE WORLD STRAIGHT TO HELL!" painted on my wall. 'Who did this?' I asked myself. "Oh god, whoever did must know who I am. What were they looking for? Where's the Scorpion Warrior?" While I was looking for my costume, I heard loud banging at my door. "Whoa who the hell is there? Stop that banging or your gonna break my door!" That's exactly what happened. The person, or should I say demon, just broke down my door. 'Oh great another gluttony demon. But, this one isn't fat like the one I fought downstairs, and… horns? Oh this does not end well.' The demon lunged for me really quickly and tried to choke me. I pulled its hands away from me and threw it against the wall. Then I walked over, pulled it out of the wall, and headbutted it.

"Oooowwww!" That headbutt was a bad idea because I just got a horrible headache after that. That was no gluttony demon, that was based on the sin of wrath. I found my Scorpion Warrior costume and, while I was putting it on, the wrath demon disappeared and what was left of it floated up and out the patio door. I didn't want to lose it, so I got dressed real quickly and started flying after it. After about an hour of chasing it, I saw Raven, Zatanna, and another dude named Doctor Fate show up at the same location. "You guys too huh?" I asked them. "Yeah. It went in here." Said Zatanna. I noticed Raven had a sick look on her face. "What's wrong?" I asked her. "Huh?" She said. She must not have realized I noticed her. "Oh… nothing. The dimensional barrier is starting to weaken. Lets go!" She said. I broke down the door and we all went in to see someone at an altar chanting. "Heheheheheh well, well, well. Raven, Zatanna, and Doctor Fate. How good of you all to come. [Haha like how I put a line from Family Guy in here?] Who's the other guy?" Said the stranger at the altar. "Oh it doesn't matter, he, you, and everybody in this plane will become enslaved by Trigon!" All of a sudden, I was being lifted and thrown against the walls, the ceiling and the floor. And I wasn't doing it. "W-what's going on?" I fell unconscious before anyone answered. Raven ran over to me and tried to wake me up. "BLOOD! What have you done!" She demanded of the stranger at the altar. "Oh, don't worry. He's not dead. I don't want any of you to die. Not yet at least. Not until Master Trigon is done with you!" He shouted. "Not when we're done with you!" Off in the rafters, there was a little impish figure. 'Now to replace their negative energy with more positive energy than Brother Blood's negative energy to counter the effects of the spell.' Raven, Zatanna, and Doctor Fate charged towards Brother Blood, but were then frozen in place. 'All going according to plan.' The impish figure thought to himself. Then Blood started absorbing they're negative energies. "GAAAAHHH! W-W-W-WHAT'S GOING ON!" Shouted Blood. "Blood!" Shouted Trigon from his dimension. "MASTER TRIGON! PLEASE ACCEPT MY SINCEREST APOLOGIES! I don't know what's going on! The spell was supposed to absorb all their negative energy! Please forgive me!" He pleaded for "Master" Trigon's forgiveness. "NO! You have failed me for the last time Blood!" He turned around with a scared look on his face. A swirly thing appeared behind him. "With whatever power I have, I banish you to my dimension for ALL ETERNITY!" Outside the altar, the positive energy that Blood absorbed from Raven, Zatanna, and Doctor Fate was having an effect on all the demons that Trigon's influence had created. Whatever demons representing any of the sins that materialized out of nothing had disappeared, and all the demons that were transformed from the citizens of Metropolis had returned to normal.

I finally woke up to witness the aftermath. Blood was being pulled into the swirly thing by a giant hand, by my guess was Trigon. I flew over and grabbed his hand before he was completely swallowed whole by the swirly thing. "NO! YOU WILL NOT HAVE HIM!" I shouted while I was attempting to free Blood. Trigon was putting up a struggle but I overheard him say something about whatever power he had left, so I just had to keep up with him until his power ran out. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HUMAN!" Trigon shouted. "No one deserves a fate that your about to give him! Not… even… him!" With that, I was able to pull Blood out of the swirly thing. "NOOOOOOO!" Shouted Trigon. [If this story gets adapted into a TV series, I doubt it though, the scream will obviously be longer than that.] The swirly thing disappeared, but around Trigon's hand. It was actually cut off. "Sweet, a spoil of the war. Raven, Zatanna, and Doctor Fate all fell to the ground. "What happened?" Asked Zatanna. "Allow me to answer that. And to introduce myself." Blood cut him off by saying, "Your Doctor Psycho. I thought you weren't on the side of good." "Ah, I have a fan. Well Blood, your absolutely right. I'm against the side of good. But I have good reason for helping here tonight. If I didn't replace any and all negative energy with positive energy within your physical beings, Trigon would've been able to absorb all the negative energy, and take over this plane, and enslave us all. Nobody wants that. Not even a villain. I helped here tonight to prevent Trigon's appearance in this plane." He informed us. "So now the earth owes you, am I right?" I asked him. "That's a good idea, I could steal all the money I want and not have to go to Stryker's Island. But no. Like I said, if I wasn't here, Trigon would've enslaved us all. Hero, villain, and civilian. And that includes me. My reasons for being here are all purely selfish." He told us. "Well if you were already here, why didn't you keep all this from happening?" I asked him. "Because I needed more than just myself for my plan to work. Plus, with my size compared to Blood, he would've ripped me apart as easily as an elephant can rip a piece of paper out. I'm no match for him. Now, our truce is over, and I shall take my leave and return to my villainous ways. Your very welcome to come after me, but I don't think you'd be able to follow me." I tried going after him, but he disappeared in purple smoke.

"Thank you, boy, for saving me from that horrible dimension." Said Brother Blood. "Don't think your out of the woods here old man." I told him. "You are very, very lucky I saved you from life imprisonment in that dimension." I said. "That's right," Said Zatanna. "I'm gonna get to work on a power-removing spell." She turned to me and said, "You know Scorpion Warrior, that spell can also affect you. I'd be able to return you to normal, pre-powers." "You mean, that for the first time in the 2 years since the accident that gave me my powers that I'd be able to live a normal life again?" I asked her. "That's right. You can become a normal human again. And not a scorpion." She said jokingly. "Hey, that's just my shtick. Spider-man doesn't have 8 limbs does he? Yet he still-ooooh you didn't mean it." [Epic facepalm moment right there.] "But I do mean what I said about that spell. You can return to life as a normal human." She said. 'Do I really want to give up these powers? Its been my lifelong dream to be a superhero. Do I really want to give that dream up?' (And 2 days later, I returned to my life as a normal human. The end.

(Just kidding. Like I said, it was my lifelong dream to be a superhero. This is what I really said.) "Do I really want to give my dream of being a superhero up? Of course not. Keep your spell, and I'll keep my powers." [That is the true ending of this chapter. Jake's keeping his powers and his mantle as the Scorpion Warrior. Now, I have something to ask of you, my readers: In the earlier chapters of "The Scorpion Warrior", I had snappy keys which represented who was talking, who was thinking (meaning inner thoughts), and all that jazz. Now I can't think of any snappy keys anymore. I'm now including a new contest. So along with giving me an idea of who I should use in upcoming chapters or giving me a villain that you'd like me to put into upcoming chapters, NOW if you give me a good and snappy introductory key, I'll use it and credit you. Please. Think of my fans. If I have any. And spread the word. ]


	9. Murder at the Tracks

Hi everybody! Hi Dr. Key: "Talking" 'Jake's inner thoughts' (Voiceover) –"Intercom"– [Note from the author] [This chapter is going to be a filler because I don't want to have a big fight. I'm not going to reveal what's going on in this chapter. Just read on and be amazed.]

The Scorpion Warrior

Murder at the Tracks

"Oh wow! I can't wait for the race to start!" Said little Christopher Jeffries, a little boy who was sitting next to me in the stands waiting for a race at the NASCAR tracks to start. "You too, huh? I got my ticket about 6 months ago." I told him. We're both big fans of Freddie McGuire. I'm really sad about him retiring, but excited to see his final race. My dad knew that I was a big fan, so he would always put a little money from his paychecks aside.

Down at the pit stop, Freddie's crew was wondering why he hasn't arrived yet. "I think he's still in the locker room." One of the crewmembers said. "Well go look," said another one. "He's never been late to one of his races." The crewmember went over to the locker room. "Jesus Christ it's hot in here! Hey Freddie, you here?" He turned the air down then looked for Freddie and saw him slumped over with his head in his locker. "Hey Freddie, what's wrong? You puking from anxiety?" He tried shaking him to get his attention. He fell on the ground, dead. A hole in his forehead. He went to the announcers box to tell them the news.

Back at the stands, we were all waiting for the race to start. –"FREDDIE MCGUIRE IS DEAD?" – Said one of the commentators, not realizing the intercom microphone was still on. "AAAAHHHHH!" 'WHAT?' Everyone started getting scared. I got out of the stands and made my way to the commentator's box. "Hey, what are you doing here? Commentators only kid." One of them said. "Way to freak everyone the hell out. By the way, turn your mic off next time. Give it to me." I said. "Why should I?" The guy asked. "Because my father is the chief of police." The commentator handed me his microphone and showed me how to operate it. –"EVERYONE CALM DOWN! My father is the chief of police. The commentators have called the police and they will be here in just a few minutes. For now, I'll help with the investigation."– I turned to the guy who found the body. "Take me there." We got to the locker room and I began to investigate until the police got here. "Oh great," I said sarcastically to my dad. "I had hoped to solve a case on my own." I said.

The coroner walked over to us. "For some reason, the body was hotter than hell, so it's next to impossible to determine ToD." "Is there CoD?" My dad asked. "Follow me and be enlightened," I said while walking to the body. "Feast your eyes on what is the CoD. A hole in his head." That was my joking voice. "Was he shot?" My dad asked. It's serious Jake time now. "No. If he was shot, there'd be a hole in the back of the head. Is there?" The coroner flipped Freddie over. "Does not look like it. Also, there would probably be backsplash in the locker." I continued. "Unless he was moved?" My dad asked. "No, he was definitely killed here. He had to have been stabbed. The killer didn't go all the way through, too. If it was cylindrical, it would've been really messy. So the killer must've used something cone-shaped." The coroner said. "Any suspects?" My dad asked. "I would probably have to say… all the racers in the season. This guy was that good. He got where he was even without causing one accident!" I told him. "And you got all that from…?" He asked. "I'm one of his biggest fans? Don't forget, I've never missed any of his races. ANY." I told him. "Whooh, don't remind me. Every day for months on end, you would always ask me if I could buy a ticket for us. I'm sorry I couldn't make it this time." He said. "Oh don't worry about it, pop. We got to meet him, right? Though I wish it was under other circumstances." I said, a little sadly. "Don't worry," Said the crewman from earlier. "I'm sure he'd appreciate what you're doing." "I'm sure he'd appreciate being able to race his last race," I retorted. "Anyway, dad, I got all that from his statistics too. He had a few rivals for the gold."

I was interrupted by one of the investigators. "Sir, we've spent the whole time we were here searching and we couldn't find the murder weapon anywhere." She said. "Well maybe because the killer took the weapon?" My dad said sarcastically. "No. This murder was this morning, before the race started. He would've thrown the murder weapon away. Its like it just disappeared into thin air." She said. I started pacing back and forth so I could think. 'Huh… hold on a second… a hole that didn't go all the way through, the murder taking place in question, the murder weapon not being here, and there was no blood around the body at all…'

"I'm missing something here." I leaned back on one of the sets of lockers, then nearly jumped out of my skin. "Holy crap! That's hot!" My dad turned to the crewman while I was cursing out the locker. "You were the first here correct?" He asked him. "Yeah. It was hotter than hell when I got in here and…" "It was what?" I interrupted him then poked the locker again. It was still hot. "I said it was hotter than hell in here when I got in here." "When were you planning on telling us that?" My dad asked us. "Don't worry about it, dad. I have it almost all figured out. That explained the burning locker in a cool locker room… the impossible ToD because the body was really hot… and Freddie slumped in the locker." I started figuring. "What was the temperature around the wound compared to the rest of the body?" I asked the coroner. "It was cold as ice." "It was an icicle!" I said. "What are you talking about about Jake?" My father asked me. "We're in Metropolis. The only way for an icicle to exist here is if Superman was blowing on it." He said. "Or if the killer had access to a freezer. How many of the racers recently took a trip to Alaska?" I asked my dad. "One of the racers, Donovan McGinley." One of the investigators said. "Then he's our murderer. Don't go in for the arrest yet, I have to publicly embarrass him." I went to the announcer's box and told the guys there the truth. Soon as I finished, one of them let me borrow his microphone.

–"Ladies and gentlemen,"– I said into the microphone, and when the feedback stopped, I continued. –"I know who murdered Freddie McGuire. But first, I'm going to publicly embarrass you in front of tens of thousands of people. Donovan McGinley, please step up to the microphones so we can all hear you."– I said. He did as I asked. As soon as he got to a microphone, he started talking. –"What's this about, kid? You said you know who killed Freddie. But you ask me to step up to the microphones so we can talk? What are you getting at?"– He asked. –"I'm saying you are the one who killed Freddie McGuire."– I said accusingly. –"Wow kid, you really are the son of the police chief. You must've picked up really good ways to lie. You actually had me going there."– The camera's were then, at that point, on him.

"Hold on a minute, this isn't live is it?" I asked one of the announcers. "No they aren't. Would you like it to be?" He asked. "No" I said. –"Hey kid, you still there?"– Donovan asked through the microphones. –"Uh… yeah."– I said. –"These cameras aren't live. I'll be using them to watch you."– –"Well then if you're done falsely accusing me of murder, I'd like to give all these, as you've said, tens of thousands of fans a good show."– He said. I could tell by the look on his face and the tone of his voice that he was starting to get impatient. –"That's exactly what I'm giving them. A good show. I'd bet that almost 50% of these people are fans of Freddie McGuire."– Donovan interrupted me by saying, –"Then please explain."–

–"The murder weapon was nowhere to be found. Neither was any blood."– I started to get a lot more confident from my tone of voice. –"One of the witnesses told me that the locker room was hot, yet one spot was colder than ice. Like the murder weapon."– I told him. –"And what does that have to do with me?"– He asked. –"Correct me if I'm wrong, Mr. McGinley, but didn't you recently take a trip to Alaska?"– His face changed from being calm, to looking like he just saw a ghost. –"Why don't you go ahead and explain to these tens of thousands of people exactly why you denied us the pleasure of watching our favorite racer have his final race before he retires?"– That made the look on his face go from the sight of a ghost, to that of sorrowful regret.

–"What? He was going to retire?"– He asked frightfully. –"Yes… how did you not know that? You hated him so much you never delved too much into his personal life?"– I asked him confused. –"I-if I'd have known he was about to retire after this race, I wouldn't have done it. Oh God, he's right. Its all true! I was tired of always coming in behind him, always coming second to him. This was the championship. I was in Alaska when I heard about the championship and that he was gonna be in it. I was gonna make a fool out of himself. He was never late for a race, ever. So if I made him late for the championship, it would ruin his reputation. I grabbed an icicle and made sure it didn't melt by sticking it in a thermos along with some snow and ice and put it in a cooler with more snow and ice so it wouldn't melt until I got back. I made it back to Metropolis a few days before the race. I waited until then, until this morning. We were there alone together. I took the icicle, and jabbed it in his forehead."– 'That explains the lack of blood.' –"The last thing he said was "Hey Donovan, good luck". I am so sorry. If I knew that this was going to be his last race anyway, I wouldn't have killed him. Ladies and gentlemen, I am very sorry about what I did. If I would be able to go back in time and prevented that, I would. I was just upset about always coming in behind him. I am so sorry."–

–"Yeah tell that to the judge."– My dad said as he was arresting him. The microphones picked up on them and I heard it, so I added, –"Yeah and don't forget his friends and family."–

(In the end, Donovan was so distraught over the fact that he killed Freddie without knowledge of his retirement that he actually quit NASCAR himself. What draws people to murder? Why do people take the lives of other people? Why do they take them away from their friends and family? What gives them the right to play God and take away a person's life? Why don't they think about their decisions? Why don't they think about who they're affecting? Well good thing the Scorpion Warrior is around. I'll protect the people. I am the Scorpion Warrior and I will do what it takes to prevent bad things from happening to innocent people.)


	10. Superhero? Since when?

Dun, du-du-duuuunnn, THE KEY! "Talking" 'Thinking' Phone call/Communicator

Scorpion Warrior

Chapter 8

Superhero? Since when?

One day, in my apartment, while I was sitting on the couch watching TV, my eyes started to feel a little funny. Next thing I know, I can barely see my TV, or my apartment. I could literally see nothing. I thought I was gonna fall through my couch, but I wasn't. Then, it stopped. Was I going crazy? Superman can see through anything, except for lead, but that's beside the point. Is this another power granted to me by that radiation from two years ago? Superman was from Krypton, that makes sense. But I'm an ordinary human. I'm not an alien. I'm sure getting some of Superman's powers though. Flight, near indestructibility, and now this. He calls his version x-ray vision. Is that what I have? What was I thinking of when that happened? I went up to the tower to see if someone would know.

"Yeah its x-ray vision alright." Said Clark when I asked him what happened to me earlier. "Your getting some of my powers." "What was that company you went to when you had that accident?" Asked Batman. "I can't remember all that well, but I think one of the tour guides called it LexCorp." I answered him. "Of course it would be Lex Luthor." Said Bats. "Then the rumors were true after all." He said. "Yep, and you owe me $1,000." Said The Flash in his usual humoristic attitude. "Two years ago, they got their hands on some Kryptonite. Rumor had it they were trying to turn humans into artificial Kryptonians in one of Lex's crazy-assed attempts to destroy Superman. Clark-y boy didn't want him to use his home planet as a weapon, so he had it shut down." "It was also to make it so that regular humans could have the same sort of powers as one from Krypton while under a yellow sun. Lex was trying to create an artificial superhuman." Said Clark. "Looks like the rumors were true, and you were their first test subject apparently." Said The Flash. "How do you guys know all that?" I asked him. "I am a reporter, don't forget. Actually I was sent to investigate." Answered Clark. "But what I don't understand is how can I get close to you without hurting if that laser gave you powers by blasting you with Kryptonite. Luthor got his hands on Kryptonite to weaponize it and use it to give humans the powers of one from Krypton, but in doing so he must've had the idea to use them to weaken, and therefore, kill me." He said. "That explains why the Kryptonite didn't affect me. I have flight, strength, and near indestructibility. All of your powers. Then I also must've gotten your weaknesses too right? But since I got my powers from Kryptonite, it doesn't affect me." I wondered. Clark interrupted my thoughts by saying, "Now just because you have x-ray vision doesn't mean you should use them for your own personal gain. I remember the first time I was actually affected by some red kryptonite. It made me do things I normally wouldn't do. I won't go into too much detail, but let me just say it was a sight I would not forget for a long time." I understood what he meant and gave him a fist pound.

After Clark's diagnosis, I left the tower and went back to my apartment. Clark showed up on the patio about an hour later and told me to get in my Scorpion Warrior outfit. When I asked him why, all he said was to hurry because he said he found someone was up to something in a warehouse. That seemed a little suspicious seeing as how I normally get alerts straight from the tower. No one has ever told me that there was something going down. I still got in my costume and followed him to the warehouse. We got there probably about 30 minutes later, then Clark went nuts. He grabbed my ankle and threw me down through the roof of the warehouse. When I landed with a thud on the ground, which by the way I gotta say HURT LIKE A BITCH, here comes Clark. He grabbed a steel girder and slammed it into me quite a few times. He finally stopped and tossed the girder aside. When he came over to survey the damage, I got up pretty quickly and gave him a swift uppercut. "Clark what's gotten into you!" I asked him. "You're supposed to be protecting the innocent. Not harming them. That includes me! Your Superman aren't you!" He was up in the air after a quick recovery and after hearing that, he responded with, "Superman? That copy-cat? I'm not Superman. Haven't you noticed my costume isn't blue and it also doesn't have a big "S" on my chest." There was a "U" on his chest. I used my new x-ray vision power and scanned his skeletal structure. His heart was on the other side of his body. This wasn't Clark Kent. "You aren't the real Clark Kent are you?" I asked him. "Oh, my name's Clark alright. But I'm not a Kent. I'm Clark Luthor! I'M ULTRAMAN!" He claimed. I took a page from his book and, while he was ranting, I grabbed a girder and smacked HIM with it. "HA! That's a taste of your own medicine asshole!"

I realized he has me seriously outclassed, so there was only one thing to do. I flew out of the warehouse before he came to and started my search for one of the two people who could help me defeat him. Metallo was out cause I wouldn't even know where to start looking, so I started off for LexCorp. "Somehow, I ended up in an alternate universe. Unless this universe is any different from my universe, this world's Lex should be around here somewhere." The second I found the building, Ultraman caught up to me and tried to blast me with his heat vision. I was able to dodge it though, but not before crashing through one the windows of his buildings. "Whoa, what's going on!" Said this universe's Lex Luthor. I used my x-ray on him and noticed that he had the same thing as Ultraman. His heart was on the opposite side too. "Your Lex Luthor right? Do you have any kryptonite I can borrow?" I asked him. "Why do you need to borrow kryptonite." He asked. When he asked that, Ultraman started hovering in front of the window I crashed through. "THAT'S WHY!" I shouted to him while pointing at Ultraman. I have never been more scared in my whole life. "Are you two brothers?" I asked him. "He was adopted. Hello Ultraman. I thought we had an agreement. I pay you protection money, you leave me alone. Did you send a lackey to help you destroy my window?" He said. "Hey, I just got here!" I noticed Ultraman wasn't coming in the building. I used my x-ray vision to scan Lex's office and found kryptonite. But it was blue. "Its worth a try." I said quietly. I found the kryptonite in Lex's desk, so I grabbed the desk and threw it at Ultraman. That weakened him quite a lot. "Finally, an even playing ground!"

I flew out after him and reengaged him in a fight. I was actually winning this time. I threw a constant flurry of punches that he couldn't keep up with. That kryptonite was a good idea because I beat him quickly. I finished him off by, again, giving him a taste of his own medicine. I grabbed his ankle and threw him down to the ground. After he landed, I starting flying down to the ground and landed on him, basically kicking him in the stomach. I then proceeded to repeatedly punch him in the face. I stopped after a while cause I got tired and I remembered he was the real Clark's evil twin so he can't die. He did, however, fall unconscious. This earth's Lex came out to congratulate me. "Well Scorpion Warrior, congratulations. You've defeated the most feared super villain on Earth." "This earth." I interrupted him. "Excuse me?" He asked. "This isn't my real earth. My earth has a hero named Superman." I told him. "Ah Superman. I'm aware of him. You come from Earth-1. I have a device that can transport anyone between worlds. Right… here actually." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a device that attaches to your wrist like a gauntlet type deal. He slipped it on my wrist and told me how to operate it. "Its simple. Push this button to warp yourself back to your earth." As soon as he was about to push it, Ultraman woke up and zapped the device with his heat vision the second Lex pushed the button. It caught us both in the gauntlet's range and transported us out of that world and into a desert. We both wound up unconscious.

Note from the author: Hey readers, guess what? I'm turning this story into a crossover between Marvel and DC. But for next… I don't know how many chapters, Jake and Earth-2's Lex Luthor are trapped in another world. You can still send me villains/villain ideas, but I may not use them for another… I don't know how many chapters. You'll find out where Jake and Earth-2's Lex are in the next couple chapters.


	11. Religious nutcase

Full Metal Key: "Talking" 'Jacob's inner thoughts' [Chapter recall]

Scorpion Warrior

Chapter 9

Father Cornello

[In the last chapter of The Scorpion Warrior, after defeating Ultraman with the blue kryptonite, Lex Luthor of Earth-2 tried to send Jake back to his own Earth, but Ultraman regained consciousness and tried to kill Jake and Lex with his heat vision. But it struck the device, which sent Lex and Jake all the way back to 1914. Read on to see what happens.]

"Rose, look. These people are wearing real strange clothing." Said a voice. It sounded like a little kid's voice. "Now now. That's no way to talking about somebody." Said another voice. The first voice said Rose, so I would have to assume the second voice belongs to someone named Rose. When I woke up from unconsciousness, somehow I fell out of bed. "OOWW! What was that?" I asked in frustration. Was that a hammock I was sleeping in? "Look Rose, he's awake." Said the first voice. When I was looking around to get my bearings, I realized I was in my underwear. "Wahh don't look!" I tried to reposition my legs to cover myself. "Can I have some clothes please? Speaking of clothes, where's my costume?" Rose looked confused. "Costume?" She asked. "Are you talking about that unitard you were wearing earlier? You looked constricted in it, and the color was ugly, so I threw it away." She said. The little one gave me what I was to assume a shirt and pants, but not the clothing I was accustomed to. "Wait, what? Oh… uh… nevermind. It's okay. I'll just make it again." I corrected myself because I was supposed to keep my identity as The Scorpion Warrior a secret, but at first glance, I noticed that this Rose person didn't have any idea what I was talking about. "By the way, my name's Jake Smith." I introduced myself to her. "My name's Rose. Nice to meet you." I yawned and stretched when I stood up because that hammock felt uncomfortable. "Where's Lex?" I asked. Then Rose got way confused. "Lex? Who's Lex? That's an unusual name. We don't get any Lex's out here in Liore." She said dumbfoundedly. "Uh… he's a bald dude. Kind of large around the shoulders." I said. "Oh that guy? He woke up a few hours ago so I gave him a tour." Said Rose. I sat down on the hammock and started swinging on it a little bit. "Did you say I was in Liore? How far is that from Metropolis?" I asked her. Now she was even more dumbfounded than before. "The way you said Metropolis, it sounds like a city you live in? Am I safe to assume that? Cause the nearest metropolis from here is about 100 miles from here. I think its called Central. At least, that's what I've heard." Lex showed up in the door. "Kid, I'm not sure we're on your Earth… from what I've observed, I don't think we're in our time anymore. Try and contact Superman." He said. I got my watch and tried contacting Clark. "Hey Superman." No response. "Superman?" No response. I looked at Lex with a worried look on my face. "Rose, tell me something." He asked her. "Yes?" She replied. "What… uh what year is this?" "Its 1914." She said.

After an hour of processing that knowledge, I decided to do a little exploring myself. I came to a fountain, but the water was different than what I expected… it was red… and it smelled of wine? I grabbed a cup and dipped it in to get a better look. "It really is wine. What…?" Somebody grabbed me. "Hey you! The wine's not for a kid like you!" Said the guy. "Oh, I'm sorry sir." I poured the wine back into the fountain. "You're not from around here, are you?" He asked me. Boy could he say that again. "Something like that. And I'm gonna turn 21 next month." I sat at the counter of the guy's store and got some milk. A kid drinking orange juice and a guy in a suit of armor were sitting next to me. "Do you really think there's a philosopher's stone here brother?" Said the guy in the armor. The voice did not match the girth. I was also fixated on the glowing eyes. There is no way a human's eyes look like that. And the voice that came from the armor sounded so much lighter than the girth of the armor. "You got milk eh? I personally hate the stuff." That snapped me out of whatever hypnosis I was under. "Oh uh… what…? Oh… uh sorry what'd you say?" I asked him. "I was talking about your drink. You got milk?" Said the kid. "Oh, yeah. I like it. What's wrong with it?" I asked him. "Eh, I just don't like it. Nothin wrong with that right?" He said. "No, I guess not." I replied. "Oh, its time for a little soul food." Said the bar owner. 'Soul food?' "What the hell do you mean soul food?" Said the kid. The bar owner turned on the radio, as did everyone else in the city, and a voice came on. It was talking about how good the city was doing or some crap like that. After the broadcast ended, the kid said, "What the hell was that?" "That was our Father Cornello. He came to our destitute little town and turned it into the bustling city that it is today. That fountain didn't always spout wine." Said the bar owner. "You have a preacher that can do the things Jesus Christ can do?" I asked the bar owner. "No, he's an emissary for our sun god Leto." The bar owner said. The suit of armor stood up and accidently hit roof that the radio was on. "Hey be careful you tin can!" Screamed the bar owner. "Its okay, I can take care of this." The voice coming from the armor said. He drew a weird looking circle on the ground, put both the hands together, a big flash appeared and the radio was fixed. "Whoa what the hell! Are you guys magicians?" I asked in surprise. "Magicians? No." The voice from the armor said. "Actually, we're alchemists. Alchemy has nothing to do with magic," He started to say. "You guys are alchemists!" I interrupted him in surprise. "Can you turn lead into gold! I didn't know it was real. It doesn't work the way the knight in shining armor did just now." "Actually no," The kid said. "If I do that, I lose my state alchemist certification." "Well that would've been cool," I said. "You'd've been able to transmute gold and make make this town a thriving paradise if you got here earlier than this Corduroy dude." "CORNELLO!" Said the bartender correcting me. "Yeah, we're actually the Elric brothers. We're pretty well known." Said the kid. "Never heard of ya." Said the bartender. I waved to him as if to ask for more milk. "That's Edward Elric," Said a woman in a hood. "The Fullmetal Alchemist. He's been a celebrity around East City. They say he's a real child prodigy."

A little crowd gathered around the armor and started fascinating over him. One even commented about how the armor is actually a metaphor for his full metal status. "I'm not the full metal alchemist, he is." The guy in the suit of armor pointed to the smaller kid. "Him? You mean that little shorty?" All of a sudden he had a temper tantrum and grabbed two guys by the shirts and spinning them around while screaming and blowing the comment way out of proportion. One of the victims of the tantrum even kicked me in the head. I fell on the ground and the glass of milk fell on the ground as well and shattered. "Well I can tell there's plenty of excitement around here today." Said Rose. The kid came over to help me up and apologized to me. "My name's Ed." He said. "The lug in the armor there is my little brother Al." "Little brother? I don't think even you can fit in there. He must've had a growth spurt." I said. "WHY DON'T YOU COME HERE AND SAY IT TO MY FACE YOU COWARD!" He screamed in another of his tantrums. The suit of armor was holding him back. Someone apparently doesn't like to be called small. "Rose why don't you take our new friends to see Father Cornello's demonstration." She took us up to the their Church of the Sun God Leto. His demonstration was this, a little kid came up to him because their pet bird had died. Cornello takes the bird in his hands, and brings it back to life. "Some demonstration." I said. "What do you mean?" Asked Ed. "Where I come from, there's a person who does things like this for entertainment. This is all fake." I told him. "Brother, look at what's on his hand." Said Al. When Ed looked at what was on his hand, his face changed to that of surprise. "That's a philosopher's stone brother! That's what we've been searching for!" Said Ed, full of excitement. "Philosopher's stone?" I started imagining one of my favorite movies I used to watch as a kid. Somewhere deep inside, I had a feeling that Ed's philosopher's stone and the one I was thinking of were two different things. "Check this out, in alchemy, there's something called equivalent exchange. You break down the molecules of an object, change it around, and it comes back completely different." 'Just like Indiana Jones.' Cornello went inside, and so did rose. We decided to follow her. Al disappeared sometime when we got there. Rose went up to the altar and started praying. She was saying it quietly, but somehow, I was able to hear her just as if she was talking right next to me. 'Am I getting another of Superman's powers?' She was praying for the Gods to bring back her dead boyfriend. I was just sitting there, in awe. 'Can a God even do that?' Ed pulled a book out and started reciting what makes up an average adult's human body. "…and trace amounts of 15 other elements. Those are the ingredients to make an adult human body, Rose." While Ed was explaining all that, Al poked his head around the corner, but some goon came up behind him and shot him in the head. "Whoa what the hell was that!" I yelled. Rose was screaming about Al's head falling off. I was freaking out myself until the armor came back to life and started talking, then I nearly fainted. "Rose wait." said the armor. But she ran away. "E-Ed, what's going on?" I asked him freaking out even more. "That's what happens when you try human alchemy. We didn't know that, and we both paid the price. Al there worse than me. That "prophet" Cornello is playing with forces of nature beyond his control and he has the whole city of Liore confused." Said Ed. The suit of armor picked up its head and put it back on. "So then… what happened to you Al?" I asked him. "We tried to bring our dead mother back to life. We didn't know what we were messing with. I lost my whole body to the transmutation…" Al started. "And I lost my entire right arm and half of my left leg." Ed finished while he was taking off his overcoat and jacket and pulling up his pant leg to reveal a metal arm and leg. "You lost both of your limbs to bring back your mom?" I asked him. "No, I was lucky enough to only lose one limb to attempt to bring mom back." He answered. "Then… what happened to your arm?" I asked. "I used that to bring back Al." He said. I was confused about the answer. "Your brother's a suit of armor? What was your dad, a toaster?" I asked jokingly. "No, Al was a human being. I gave my arm up to bind his soul to the armor. And don't you dare talk about our bastard of a father." He said. He looked like he was really pissed. Al continued by saying, "Our father left us when I was a little kid. Ed blames him for the death of our mother. And… what's a toaster?" Ed said, "I don't blame him for her death, he wasn't there when she died." I said, "Never mind about the toaster."

Ed put his jacket and overcoat back on and pushed his pant leg back down and got up and said, "We have to go after Cornello and stop him from doing something that could put this whole city in danger. I saw Rose go that way." He pointed to where he saw Rose run off to. "She must've gone to Cornello for support." I suggested. "Lets go." We started running to the direction Ed pointed out. When we got to the room where Cornello had Rose with him, Cornello was there up on the preacher's thing Rose. "You've wrestled with the darkness and prevailed. Thank you for bringing them here." Said Cornello while he was walking down the stairs. "State alchemist, brutal enforcers. I had a feeling one of you would show up one day." 'State alchemist?' "Lets not chalk that up to pious premonitions, okay? You knew we'd come for the stone!" Cornello's face went from kindly to angry in a second. "You mean this, young man?" Ed became aware. "I knew it. Alchemy without a transmutation circle. Completely ignoring the principle of equivalent exchange! It could only mean one thing!" He yelled. "Yes the mythical gem. The legendary amplifier. The philosopher's stone." Said the faux priest. "That's it Al, its ours. Cough it up Cornello! That stone belongs to me now." Said Ed. 'You? Why you? Selfish.' "And if you hand it over peacefully, I won't tell the people here what you've been doing!" He continued. "Whatever do you mean? They all know I'm helping them. Why tell someone what they already know? What do you think would happen if my miracles suddenly stopped? Nobody wants that. Right Rose?" Continued the conniving con artist also know as Cornello. "Don't listen to him Rose, he's just trying to confuse you!" Ed plead for Rose not to buy into that "religion". 'You don't need to tell me twice. The thing with the bird? The bird was just stunned. "Why would the military want to take away all I've done for this town?"

"I don't give a damn about what the military wants. I'm here for personal reasons!" Said Ed. 'You tell him.' "I need that stone. We need it to make something right again!" "If you want the philosopher's stone then come and get it!" All of a sudden the ring flashed and somehow the floor just turned into sand. I had to reveal my abilities so I flew up to avoid getting caught. "What the hell was that?" I asked in confusion. "What's going on with you?" Asked Ed. "Long story!" I replied. "Let me introduce you to one of my creations!" Said Cornello while pushing a button on the wall. A weird creature came out of a door that rose up off the floor. It had the head of a lion with a lizard's tail? 'What the hell? Is that a sphinx?' "The most depraved type of alchemy," Said Ed. "You created a chimera didn't you?" He screamed at the false priest. 'A chimera! They do exist!' The weird lion thing was rushing toward Ed. He clapped his hands together and threw them on the ground. All of a sudden, a lance came up out of the ground. I was really confused about that. "Oh, and I didn't forget about you, floating boy." Said Cornello. He threw the bird that was sitting on his shoulder and, with the power of the philosopher's stone, it grew big. And it was coming straight for me. It didn't give me enough time to react because as soon as it grew, it came right for me. I tried flying out of the way, but it still caught me and sliced up my back. It healed almost as soon as it happened, but let me tell you that was the worst pain I've ever felt since I got my powers. "Okay, now I'm pissed! COME BACK HERE YOU SON OF A BITCH!" I yelled to the parrot.

While I was fighting the parrot in mid-air, Ed was fighting the lion chimera. The lion went for Ed's left leg but couldn't chew it off. Ed's automail leg wasn't giving up. He must've seen me struggling cause he clapped his hands together and pulled a staff out of the ground. He got my attention and threw the staff up to me just in time to catch the parrot's talons on in. I threw the parrot off the staff and, after noticing there was an arrowhead on one end, I threw it at the parrot javelin-style and it pierced the parrot and went right through it's body. It fell to the ground, dead. At that point, the lion was then trying to eat Ed's right arm off. "What's the matter, you poor bastard? Can't get a good taste? Well have some of THIS!" Screamed Ed and threw the lion against one of the columns. I pulled the staff out of the parrot and threw it at the lion when it was about to pounce on Ed again. The staff pierced the lion too, killing it as well. Cornello and Rose looked like they were freaked out of their minds. "I don't understand! Ed, what's going on?" Asked Rose. "Don't look away Rose, you need to see this. This is what happens when you try to mess with forces you don't understand." He tore off his jacket to reveal his automail arm. "Of course, it all makes sense now." Said Cornello. "You messed with nature and tried to bring someone back to life, and you paid the price. You are the Fullmetal Alchemist!"

The stone must've heard what Cornello said, cause then there was a backlash of energy, which really mutated his arm. He ran out of the prayer hall in fright, and I gave chase. Ed stayed back to help pull Al out of the sand. "Don't ever try bringing someone back to life Rose. You'll only end up like me. Or worse, like Al. I was really lucky to be spared with only my arm and leg taken from me. But we messed up, bad! It cost Al his whole body. I gave up my arm to bind his soul to this suit of armor, now he can't feel anything. He can't even eat or sleep." He started tearing up. "I'm sorry Alphonse, I'm so sorry."

Cornello ended up in the courtyard, and I made it there just in time to hear him start him call me, Ed and Al heathens and start demoting us in front of their "Sun God Leto". "Oh give me a break!" I said. He didn't even turn around. "Look at his freaking arm!" "Children," He showed the crowd what happened to his arm. "The heathens made me misuse this power for evil purposes." I just stood there in complete awe. "How can you just stand there misleading these poor people. Don't listen to him! He tried to kill me and my friend." I yelled to the crowd. "That's enough out of you!" Cornello pointed the ring towards a giant statue that was behind me and made it stomp on me. Thanks to my super-strength, I was able to lift up the statue's foot. It took a lot of effort, let me tell you. I flew out of the path of the statue's foot and it tried to hit me again with its staff. "ENOUGH!" I yelled. All of a sudden, a bunch of red hot beams started blasting out of my eyes, which destroyed the statue's head.

I looked at Cornello with a clever look on my face. He, however, had a freaked out look on my face. I had to keep the confusion from creeping over my face. I looked at the ground near his feet and let the beams that destroyed the statue's head explode from my eyes launching him back into the crowd. "NOW YOU'LL PAY FOR THAT NON-BELIEVER!" The ring flashed and then a statue that was even bigger than the statue I beheaded came out of the roof and punched me, creating a small crater around where I landed. I was struggling to get out of the hole before the giant statue's foot came crashing down. I moved my hands out of the way so the eye beams could explode from my eyes and obliterate the statue's entire leg. "OH CRAP!" I realized that without the statue's leg, it'll come crashing down. Onto the whole crowd. I started pushing on the hole's edges and gave myself enough room to fly out and catch the statue moments before it crushed part of the crowd. When they all ran out of the way, I was able to drop the statue safely. Then I continued my assault on Cornello. I grabbed him by the collar and demanded that he's a fake. "NEVER!" He screamed. He must've overloaded the ring's power because his arm mutated to look like Cyborg's arm but all messed up, like it was fleshy and had a bunch of screws loose, and then the red orb exploded.

Ed and Al came running outside. "What the hell was all that noise?" Ed demanded. I grabbed the ring and threw it to him. "The ring WAS a fake. You were right Ed!" He fell to his knees like he was defeated. I turned to the crowd and said, "You see? This Cornello prophet is nothing but a fake. He was using a ring to perform those "miracles". He's nothing but a liar and a cheat! You've all been lied to and misbelieved. Go out and make your own miracles. You can do it." I looked at Cornello and said, "I'd deal the final blow, but I think you're already pathetic enough. You aren't even worth it." "Brother? Are you okay?" Asked Al to Ed. "We were so close," I looked up to them. "We were so close! All that time spent, wasted!" He tossed the ring aside. "Lets go guys."

A few minutes later, after we left the temple, Lex caught up to me. "Jacob, I fixed the trans-warp generator. We can go back to our own time now." He told me. "Great." I turned to the Elrics and said, "Ed, Al, I'm gonna go." "Will we see you again?" Al asked me. "Sorry Al. We won't be meeting again." I told them. Lex put the device on my wrist, pushed a button, and we appeared back on my earth, the ancient buildings of Liore nowhere to be found. All were replaced by the modern buildings and the Elric brothers nowhere to be seen either. Lex took the device and used it to return to Earth-2. 'I'm gonna miss those boys.' Then I started off to my apartment.


	12. Petrificus Totalus

Stone cold key: "Talking" 'Jake's inner thoughts/communication between Jake and J'onn'

Scorpion Warrior

Chapter 12

Fate Averruncus, Chigusa Amagasaki, and Ryomen Sukuna

"Hey Jake," My dad called me over the phone a week after returning from 1914. "I have a conference I need to go to over in Kyoto." I was sitting on my couch doing nothing but watching TV when he called me. "Alright? And?" I asked him. "You're 20 years old now, so I can't tell you whether or not to come." He said. "I got nothing better to do right now. I'll come." I told him. "Alright. We leave in a few weeks." He told me. "Great, that gives me enough time to work on a new costume." I replied. "New costume?" He asked me in confusion. "What happened to the old one?" "Well, it's kind of complicated. Scorpion Warrior needs a new design. I'll tell you the rest when we meet."

After I hung up, I got to work on drawing out some prototypes for a new costume design. I had some designs on another piece of paper, but I forgot where I put it, so I used my x-ray vision to try looking for it. "Huh, under the fridge? Oh well." I lifted it up, grabbed the paper, and starting thinking out new designs. In keeping with the original design, I got rid of the fangs over the mask on the cowl, so it's all streamlined. 'Hmm… should I give Scorpion Warrior a cape?' It took me a few minutes to mull that over. 'I'll decide that later.' Red markings over the rib cage, red marks pointing down the legs, red rings around the forearms and biceps, and a red S smack in the center of the chest. 'Nah, I don't think I'll put a cape in.'

So I had to rebuy the materials. I got the same kind of material that I used to make the previous costume. "Going to a costume party?" Asked the lady at the cash register. "Yeah, something like that." I said. I got the materials and, when I got back to my apartment, I spent the next couple hours putting the costume together. 'Wow, this turned out better than I expected. I hope no one mistakes me for Superman.' The next few weeks flew by. I only had a couple classes, so that way no one would suspect my identity. I would go out and stop some crimes, help put out fires. But other than that, the rest of the time was pretty boring. Everyone loved my new costume.

So as I've said before, the weeks between getting the costume change and the trip to Japan went quickly. The plane was kind of boring, glad they had an in flight movie and a pretty good meal. About 13 hours later, we got to Kyoto, Japan. Before we left, Batman gave me a language translator. The next morning, I decided to explore Kyoto. Since this is my first time on the other side of the globe, I had absolutely no idea where I was going. Luckily, and probably more pitiful for an American superhero, a young girl probably about 14-15 saw me and she and what seems to be a friend from a small group of other kids came over. "Excuse me," said the chipper kid with a big smile. "You seem lost." "Konoka Ojou-sama, you don't just walk up to people and just blurt out like that." Said her friend. 'Ojou-sama?' "I'm sorry." She said with a bow. "Its alright. Actually, this is my first time in Kyoto and I was hoping someone could help me."

"We can help you." Said Konoka. "I'm Konoka, this is my friend and classmate Setsuna." She finished while her friend bowed. "Smith. Jake Smith." I said in the same manner that James Bond introduces himself. "Class huh? Middle school wasn't my favorite." I said with a little laugh. "We're on our way to visit my father right now, so we might be able to show you around." Said Konoka. "Really? I don't want to intrude." I said politely. "Oh please, I insist. We have plenty of room at my house." She said. "Well, if you say so. I guess I can." I said while looking back at the inn my dad and I are staying at. 'I am 20 after all.' I sent my dad a text message about where I'd be and joined Konoka's group. They all introduced themselves and I introduced myself too. A few hours later, we got to Konoka's house. Actually, "house" doesn't even begin to describe it.

"Oh… wow." I said in surprise. "I've never seen a house this big." "I'm nostalgic. I haven't been here since I've been to Mahora academy." Said Konoka. 'Nostalgia eh? I'm feeling a little homesick myself.' We got inside and I didn't see a chair anywhere. 'Oh right, I learned about Japanese custom in high school.' I had a nervous look on my face. There were pillows scattered around the floor. I sat the same way everyone else was sitting. Another of Konoka's guests came down the stairs and Konoka was ecstatic to see him. The guest was her father. Konoka's 10-year-old teacher Negi Springfield gave her father a letter. "You're welcome to stay for the night. I'll send paper doubles to your hotel." While I was walking in the hallway, Negi caught up to me. "Hello Jacob. I sense a very strong aura about you. Very heroic." That caught me a little off guard. "Uh… thanks." That kind of distracted me from where I was walking and I ran into something jutting out of a room. It was a hand. "What the hell's that?" I opened the door to see that everyone was frozen. Standing in place. "What's that! Everybody's petrified!" I said in surprise. "Negi? You know what's going on?" I turned around to where I thought he was but he disappeared.

I ran back to the inn my dad and I are staying at to see a statue, of him! "DAD!" It looked like he was about to shoot his gun. "W-who did this!" To answer my question, I heard a voice from behind me. "Μικρή βασιλιάς, οκτώ πόδια σαύρας, πλοίαρχος του το κακό μάτι. Δίνει το δηλητήριο-ανάσα που κλέβει χρόνο: Ανάσα από πέτρα."

I turned around as soon as he finished that thing as saw weird smoke billowing out from the source of the voice. "Hey who're–" And that was all I could say before I got petrified and the weird boy disappeared. A few minutes later, I was able to bust myself out of that weird stone cause of my super strength, and Negi was at the door. "Hey… Negi." I said in surprise. "I followed that aura I sensed from you when it disappeared. I followed the trail back to here. How did you do that?" He asked me curiously. "Wow, for a 10-year-old teacher, you sure do ask more questions than you answer." I said. "You wouldn't know what's going on do you?" I asked him. "It's hard to explain." He replied. "Dammit! It was that kid! He's gonna pay!" I shouted. 'Jacob calm down, I'm sure things will be alright.' J'onn said to me.

"What is it?" I heard Negi say. I turned around but didn't see him anywhere. "What's going on?" I heard his voice coming from outside the door. "Konoka's missing!" That grabbed my interest. "I'll be right there!" 'Who was he talking to? And how?' He walked back in, "Jacob, would you be able to help me?" He asked me. "I might know somebody who can help. He'll meet you there." 'Dad… I will save you!' Negi gave me the address and left.

I changed into the Scorpion Warrior, went back to Konoka's mansion, and caught up to Negi and Setsuna. "What happened? Jake told me everything." Negi was staring at me. "Uhh… can I help you?" I asked him in confusion. "I'm not sure, but I sense a familiar aura about you." 'Oh no.' "Maybe I'm mistaken." He said. 'Oh good.' "From what I've seen, Jake's father was a victim of the same petrification spell that happened to the girls in that room we passed by earlier." He continued. "We need to stop that white haired kid so he doesn't petrify anymore people." I said commandingly. We heard a voice come from behind us. "Negi… Negi…" "Elder?" Asked Negi. "ELDER!" 'Oh no! Not again!' "Save Konoka, and… beware the white haired youth." Said Konoka's father before becoming fully petrified. "This is it! I'm putting a stop to this right now! Negi, you said you could see auras?" I asked him. "Yes, how did you know?" He asked me. "You said you sensed a familiar aura about me like 10 minutes ago. Can you track Konoka's aura?" I asked him. "I can try." He replied. A few minutes passed, so I started looking around to make sure there were no more victims. I passed a room with a bunch of other statues. "No! Not more victims!" Negi and Setsuna came running over. "Hey… uh…" Setsuna asked when they came to me. "Scorpion Warrior." I said, and then I looked inside the room I was in front of. Negi and Setsuna's faces turned into shock. "I found Konoka's aura," Said Negi. "I also called Asuna. She can help." He finished. "Asuna can… What? How? What can you guys do?" Negi was hesitant to answer. "Fine. Good thing I'm here. I'll take care of that kid. Just point me in the right direction." I told him.

He hesitated. "Fine, I'll find them myself." I scolded him then took off. A few minutes later, he, Asuna, and Setsuna caught up to me, flying. "What's going on?" I asked in confusion. "He's kind of a mage." Said Asuna. "Asuna, don't tell him that! Other humans aren't supposed to know about magic, remember?" He said. 'Other humans? Oh crap, he doesn't know who I am does he?' "Oh relax would ya Negi? He's wearing a mask. I'm sure he doesn't want us knowing what's under it." Said Asuna. 'Wow, she's smart. She nailed it. I'm impressed.' "Wait, so Negi, you know magic? You could've saved Jake's dad!" I said. "Tell him I'm sorry next time you see him. I don't know any petrification reversing spells, so I can't save his father." 'Dammit!' I thought while trying to keep the anger on my face inside. "The only thing I can think to do is stop the boy that did all this. It may, or may not, reverse the spell." 'It'll sure make me feel better!' "Anyway," Negi continued. "You're going the wrong way. I sensed Konoka's aura the other way." "Then lets go!" I said.

After a few minutes of flying, we caught up to them in a field. A giant monkey was holding Konoka. "What's with the giant monkey?" I asked. "That's Chigusa Amagasaki." Said Setsuna. "We need to be careful around her. She's bad news." Said Asuna. She must've noticed us in the air because she called out to us. I landed and demanded she give back Konoka. "No can do. I have a secret agenda to complete that involves her." She said in a mocking voice. "What is it?" I asked. "Why should I tell you my secret when you've gone to so much trouble to hide yours?" She replied. "I think my little friends would like to come out and play. Kiri kiri vajara unhatta." She chanted some kind of weird language that I've never heard before and Konoka looked like she was in pain.. A little later, the earth started shaking and a whole bunch of hands came shooting up out of the ground. I was backing up out of nervousness but one of the hands grabbed me and started crushing me. "Adeat!" I heard Asuna call out. She came falling down with a giant folded fan and with one hit of the fan, the demon that was holding me disappeared. Then a little later a big tornado developed around me and Asuna. Setsuna and Negi then landed inside almost after. "What's this?" I asked. "This is a protective barrier surrounding us. The demons outside can't touch it, or else they'll get hurt." Negi explained to me. "Well we don't have for this. Isn't Konoka in trouble?" I asked them. "Yes, but this is so we can come up with a strategy." Said Negi. "What else can we do bro? You need to form a pactio with Setsuna." Said a voice coming from what looks to be Negi's shoulder. "What was that?" When I asked that, an ermine appeared from Negi's shoulder and jumped to the ground, creating a weird looking circle. "That, my friend, would be me, Albert Chamomille. More commonly known as Chamo." Said the talking ermine. "A talking ermine… I know a green alien that can shapeshift, so why am I surprised by a talking animal?" I asked in weird shock. "Join the club Scorpion Warrior." Said Asuna. "What is that anyway, an alchemy circle?" I asked. "Alchemy? Yeah you wish, this ain't alchemy kid, that's science. This," When he finished the circle around Negi and Setsuna's feet, a big light started shining. "Is magic." He finished. "What's that?" I asked again. "This is a pactio circle. A magister magi steps inside this circle and, in order to make a partnership, the magi and the potential Minister Magi have to kiss." Said Chamo. That made Negi and Setsuna blush.

"If its for the good of Konoka…" Muttered Setsuna, then she kissed Negi. That made me, and Asuna probably, feel a little awkward. "PACTIO!" Called Chamo. The bright light disappeared too. Just in time, the big tornado shield was about to die too. We took fighting stances and, after the tornado died, we engaged the demons in combat. I didn't want to reveal too many of my powers, for fear of leaving witnesses to go back to their boss. After a few minutes though, we were getting over-powered. One of the demons grabbed Asuna's wrist so she could hit anyone with her harisen.

I tried helping, but one of the demons grabbed me again. They were stronger than what my super strength granted, so he was crushing me faster than I could push out of there. I almost started screaming in pain until I heard a shot come from a gun and the demon's hand let me go. I fell to the ground and passed out.

A few minutes later, I woke up, but I was still dizzy and weak from nearly being crushed to death. I was flying on Negi's staff. I came to my senses and started flying on my own. "Wh-what's going on?" I asked. "Some of the people from my class who can actually hold their own in a fight came to help. They also know about my magic. Asuna and Setsuna stayed back to help fight." Negi told me. "Some teacher you are, letting your students risk their lives. Of course, Asuna's harisen, from what I saw of it in action, could do pretty good." I said. "Bro, can you feel that magic?" Chamo called out. "They've started already." "I know!" Said Negi. "Scorpion Warrior, I'm going on ahead. I've been working on a delayed spell which I can only hold for a good fifteen to twenty seconds. Catch up when you can. Accelerat!" He said, then sped off faster that I can fly. I just sat there, hovering, in awe of that speed. 'Why can't I fly that fast?' "Okay, to go back and help Asuna and Setsuna, or to go and help Negi rescue Konoka and finish off the kid that turned my dad and the others to stone. Okay, that's easy." I said, then flew off as fast as I can towards the direction that Negi flew off in. Moments later, while I was still flying, I saw a large column of light.

Asuna and Setsuna somehow caught up too. I saw a big demon flying above the water, so I flew down and helped Negi. Just as the demon was about to strike with his sword, Negi somehow sped up and flew through the demon like a bullet zooming through a human body. I could barely seen anything through the mist. Is what I would've said, had I not had x-ray vision. I saw Negi jump off his staff as soon as the boy held his hand up. That must've thrown the boy off, because I saw a slight change of look in it. Negi landed on the podium behind the boy and tried punching him with a supercharged push off the podium, but no dice. The boy stopped the punch almost immediately. Now that's good enough to even impress me.

I was hovering closer when I heard Negi say, "Sagitta Magica Binding Arrows of Air!" 'That must've been the delayed spell he mentioned earlier.' I looked over at the table but no one was there. "Negi, she's gone." The beam started to subside, leaving in its wake an even bigger demon than the ones we've faced earlier. "W-w-what the hell is that thing!" I yelled in shock. "Surprised?" Asked Chigusa in a mocking voice. "Say hello to Ryomen Sukuna. A demon so powerful, so unstoppable, it took a master mage to seal!" She continued. "So your saying he's also uncontrollable!" I yelled to her. "Not with Konoka here. With her power, I can control this massive beast!" She said. "That… that thing… is the biggest thing I've ever seen in my entire superhero career." I almost fainted. "There's no way I can stop that." Behind us, the boy who petrified my dad broke free of Negi's apparent prison. "Can this get any worse?" I turned around. "You on the other hand, you will pay for what you did to that man." "Oh, you mean that American police officer? He threatened me with a gun. I only reacted in self defense. You can't blame me for that now, can you?" That sent me over the edge. "I'LL KILL YOU!" I came at him with all I had. Every punch, every blow I threw at him, no matter how fast I was, he dodged every one of them. Eventually, I was tired out. "Hmph, you bore me. Vish tal li shutal vangate! Μικρή βασιλιάς, οκτώ πόδια σαύρας, πλοίαρχος του το κακό μάτι. Δίνει το δηλητήριο-ανάσα που κλέβει χρόνο: Ανάσα από πέτρα."

'NO!' It was the same thing he said right before my previous petrification. Almost as quickly as the first time, I was petrified where I stand. "Well, that was… a little… entertaining, to say the least," He grabbed my wrist and threw me into the water surrounding the place that Chigusa forced Konoka to summon the giant demon. 'This is it. Is this my final battle? There's no way I can win against a demon that size, let alone someone who can petrify anyone and anything by breathing on them?' I reached the bottom of the lake. 'This is it. This exact spot is where I spend my final days. I'm going to die here. Dad, I'm sorry I couldn't save you.' A few minutes later, 'All is not lost Jacob.'

[To be continued…]


	13. Chapter 13

Rolling Key Magazine: "Talking" 'Thinking/Mental communication between Jake and J'onn' [Chapter recap/Non-story text/Author notes] (Voiceover)

Scorpion Warrior

Chapter 13

Fate Averruncus, Chigusa Amagasaki, and Ryomen Sukuna

[On the last chapter of Scorpion Warrior, Jake tags along with his dad to a conference in Japan. A trip to Japan turns into a battle to save friends and family as the Eastern Kansai Magic Association kidnaps Konoka Konoe and attempts to use her to revive an insanely powerful demon known as Ryomen Sukuna. Now that Jake has lost faith in his abilities, he's struggling between the decisions to hang up the mantle of the Scorpion Warrior for good.]

'All is not lost Jacob. We can still win.' Said J'onn in mental communication with me. I may've been petrified but I can still think. 'How can we win J'onn? You tell me. That kid is faster than me. I threw all I had at him, and he beat me with just a few words. I've never faced anyone like that.' "What about the dude that steals people's memories?" I heard the Flash ask. "Would you get out of here Flash?" Said J'onn. 'I don't know if I can go on or not.' I thought to him. 'Don't pay any attention to the Flash. I was happy to help you defeat David. I have a plan but I will need your full cooperation. It must be timed perfectly or it may fail.' If I wasn't petrified, I would've gulped. 'I don't know. I couldn't save my father, and now everyone's doomed, cause that giant demon is gonna kill everyone.' I thought. 'Not unless we work together again. My plan will work, but I'll need to let myself get petrified.' He said. 'No, I can't do that.' I said. 'Yes you can.' Somehow I started moving towards the edge of the lakebed. J'onn was psychicly pulling me to the forest on the other side of the lake.

As soon as I was out of the lake, I broke out of the petrification spell again, and J'onn appeared in front of me. "Jacob, you are a hero." He turned around to look at the pier. Asuna, Setsuna, and Negi were just barely hanging on in the fight. Negi looked as though he was about to pass out. "Alright, what're you planning?" I asked him. "I transform into you. I fight in your place, but just to distract him until the right time. I'll let him petrify me, then when I give you the word, "now", you zoom in and start fighting him." He explained to me. "I don't think that'll work. I don't have super speed." I said. "You're powers were developing slowly, but they are developing. You might get super speed at this point. Just trust me to help you win again." I nodded in agreement, and he transformed into me and flew off toward the stoner. The entire pier was in near ruins. And Asuna lost all her clothes. 'I hope that doesn't happen too often.'

J'onn, as me, engaged the kid in combat. "I will be your opponent." He said. 'J'onn, don't reveal any of your abilities. Fight as I do to throw them off.' I told him through our mental link. J'onn kept up with the kid. But the kid was better. Eventually, the kid beat him and petrified him too. I felt a whole bunch of rage build up inside. 'Now Jacob!' He called to me. That was the signal, so I flew over. That was it, I'm flying a whole lot faster than I normally used to. I just gained superspeed. In just a few short seconds, I tackled him. Everyone was surprised to see two of me. Especially the kid. He didn't know what hit him. He must've let down his guard because he thought he petrified me again. "THIS IS FOR MY FATHER!" I yelled.

After a few moments of wailing on him, I beat him. "Congratulations kid, you beat me." He said. He looked too tired to get up. I wasn't listening and was just about to deal the finishing blow, but Negi caught my arm. "Jacob, stop! It's over, you won!" He yelled to me. "Nodoka talked to me. She said that she and everyone else was unpetrified. "How do you know…" I was trying to ask but he interrupted me by saying "Your aura was familiar. And I heard you say "This is for my father"." "I'd hate to interrupt you, you guys, but don't forget about the giant demon that's staring us down ready to kill us." Asuna interrupted us. J'onn rose up out of the lake.

"I'm going to save Konoka." I said. I was almost about to fly up, but Setsuna grabbed my wrist. "No," She said. "I have to be the one to rescue her." "You? No offense, but what can you do?" I asked her. "I have a secret I haven't told anybody, not even Konoka. Proffesor Negi, Asuna, Jake, and uh… other Jake?" She was referring to J'onn. "His name is J'onn." I told her. "Okay, well once I show you my secret, you guys can never see me again." She took a few steps back and, some moments later, a pair of angel wings popped out of her back. 'Whoa. She's an angel?' "I'm a monster, just like them. I'm so embarrassed." She said moping. "You aren't a monster Setsuna." Said Asuna. After a little argument between the two [of which I can't remember], Setsuna went up to where Chigusa was and grabbed Konoka from her.

That gave me the perfect incentive to now fly up and attempt to pierce through the giant demon, but it swung its hand up and smacked me out of the air. I lost control of my flying and flew right over to the forest. Some time after waking up, I flew back over to the pier. "Jacob, maybe I can double your speed." Said Negi. He chanted something weird that I can't really repeat, and somehow, I felt lighter and stronger. "There," He continued. "Now you should be faster than that demon." I tried flying towards it again. I couldn't believe how fast I was. But that plan failed too. Instead of piercing the demon, I just smacked right into it, knocking me into unconsciousness again. Since I couldn't stay in the air, I fell right back down to the pier.

I woke up a few minutes later to hear what sounded like another kid's voice. The voice said [And I'm translating since I can't remember what the translated text was] "Lic lac la lac lilac! Upon our pact, do my bidding, O Queen of Ice. Come forth from the never ending darkness, the eternal glacier, bring death to all that hast lift. You are at the place of eternal rest: 'The End of the World'!" I felt a rumbling under me, 'Jacob move!' Said J'onn to me. I didn't question him. Deep rumbling, plus J'onn telling me to move could only spell disaster for me. So I flew out of that spot just in time to see a big spike of ice shoot up out from the very same spot that I was sitting in.

"Holy crap! That almost hit me!" I said. 'Thanks for the warning J'onn.' I said to him. That nearly gave me a heart attack. "Negi watch it would ya?" I called out to him. "Sorry, that wasn't me." He said. I flew over to him. "Well whoever it was, did a damn good job if you ask me." I said. "That would be me, Evangeline A.K. McDowell." Said the other kid. "Well watch it next time would ya?" I asked her. "There's no mercy in war. If you aren't alert every step of the way, you will get killed." Then Negi fell to the ground. "Negi?" I took my mask off to get a better read on his vitals. "He's still breathing. That's good at least." I said. "Look at his hand." Said J'onn. His entire left arm was petrified. "Its his magical resistance." Said Evangeline. "He was able to keep himself from getting petrified this long, but eventually his throat will be petrified…" "He'll suffocate." I finished. Konoka came over and kissed him forming, what his pet ermine Chamo called, a probationary contract with him, healing his eventual petrification, and making me feel a little awkward despite having a girlfriend.

(After that whole ordeal, the giant demon was sealed back up. With J'onn as proof, everybody who fell under the stoner kid's petrification spell was returned to normal, including my dad. I went to the inn to check up on him. He was doing okay. He went to his conference as planned which gave me a good chance to hang out with Negi and his group. Well, everybody who know's that Negi's a mage also knows my secret. Its okay though, Negi's trying to keep his being a mage a secret, and those who know his secret will keep my secret as well.)

"So Jake, how'd it happen?" Asked Asuna. "What?" I asked her in confusion. "Your abilities. Were you born with them?" She replied. "Heh, that would be cool wouldn't it? Just like Superman. No. Actually, I had these powers about 2 years now. Being younger, and a lot more immature than I am now, well let start from the beginning: I like parkour. I used to do it all the time, before I went to a science lab. I was trying to show off for my then-crush by doing parkour. I tried jumping off glass from the second story banister. I landed through the glass that the lab was using to filter kryptonite radiation throughout a human body so they could gain powers similar to that of a kryptonian under a yellow sun. Superman doesn't suffer from the effects of the kryptonite since there isn't any radiating from my body. I decided to use these new powers to protect my home from villains, and I adopted the mantle of the Scorpion Warrior. Believe it or not, I'm a member of the Justice League. And so is J'onn." I explained to them. "Well how come we've never heard of you?" She asked again. "Cause I've never really gone out of the States until a few days ago." I replied.

"One more thing, why don't you have a cape?" Asked Negi. "Oh wow, like I haven't already been asked that question." We all laughed. "Capes are overrated. I've been asked that quite a bit. I thought about it whenever I made the costumes, but always decided against one." My phone rang. "Yeah dad? Okay, bye. That was my dad guys. He had to go to a conference. He's out now so I should get going." I told them. "Take care of yourselves guys, and try not to get in anymore trouble. And no more losing your clothes okay?" I said. I noticed Asuna blushed. "Relax I'm only teasing. Well, good bye you guys." I left Konoka's mansion, and about 7-8 hours of sheer boredom later, finally got on a plane to go back to the States.

"So, how was your time in Japan Jake?" My dad asked me. "You have nooo idea." I replied.


	14. Best Enemies

Wow, I'm surprised at where this story went. It was originally supposed to be a DC related fanfic, now I'm including Full Metal Alchemist and Negima. Considering I love those mangas, that makes sense. Jake is 21 in this chapter so he can get drunk. Also, the talk about the radiation supercharging Jake's body, since this is fictitious, getting radiated will kill you. I don't promote it.

Rolling Key Magazine: "Talking" 'Thinking/Mental communication between J'onn and Jake' –"Comm link"–

Scorpion Warrior

Chapter 14

Best Frenemies

It was a month after I came back from my little trip to Japan. One day, I was at the store. My fridge was looking awfully bare so it's about time I went to pick some stuff up. I paid for the stuff and headed home. I got home and heard a really familiar voice from the couch. "Boy, I remember this apartment." That made me drop my groceries in shock. I got inside and saw none other than Eric! "E… Eric!" Was the only thing I could get out of my mouth.

"Hello Jake. Long time no see." He said tauntingly. He left the room and grabbed an apple from one of the grocery bags and started eating it. "How long has it been? A year perhaps? Yeah, I believe its been almost a year now." Uh-huh, its been a few months since my 21st birthday. My dad and a bunch of my friends took me out for drinks. For some weird reason all my friends were getting drunk, but me and my dad weren't. My dad was the designated driver, but I don't know why I wasn't getting drunk. I still should get that checked out.

"How'd you…" I couldn't say anything. "Come back to life?" He finished. "A little somethin somethin called the Lazarus Serum, buddy." He punched me square in the jaw. With what little consciousness I had left, I heard him say "That was for then Jake!" then stormed off. A few hours later, I regained consciousness. 'Aahhh what happened? Eric…? What was that, a dream…?' "My jaw hurts. So that wasn't a dream?" The groceries were good. I put them away and rushed to the graveyard where Eric's body was buried. Using my x-ray vision, I looked into his grave and noticed a body in there. 'That can't be…'

"It's a doll! What's going on?" –"This happened once before. One of my old partners was killed in an explosion by the Joker that I was too late to prevent."– Said Batman over the comm link. –"Hey Bats, what's the… what's the Lazarus Serum?"– I asked him. –"The Lazarus Serum is a powerful potion. It brings the dead back to life."– He told me. –"It brings zombies to life? Tell me there's not gonna be an outbreak!"– I said, really scared. –"No! Not zombies. They can't infect other people by biting them."– His attempt at trying to cheer me up sort of worked. I warped up to the tower so I could have someone take a better look at me.

"So uh say again…" Said the Flash to me while Superman was xraying me. "Again, on my 21st birthday, my dad and some of my friends took me out for drinks. I had quite a few, but I didn't feel the effects of the alcohol." I said. "Maybe that kryptonite radiation supercharged your liver. It dissolves the alcohol much faster than it can take effect." He informed me. "Hmm…?" He wondered. "What's up Clark?" I asked. "I think I figured out how that kryptonite radiation affected you. It actually supercharged your whole body. Your eyes, which explains the xray and heat visions. Your muscles, which gave you your super strength, and you're also able to change your weight mass. That allows you to fly." He told me. "How the hell do you know all that Super Brain?" Flash asked in complete awe. "You just answered your own question Flash." Clark tapped his head and said, "Super brain." "Jake, I'd like to talk to you for a minute." Said Bruce. I followed him to the tech wing where he showed me a file on Ra's Al Ghul.

"He is a 5000 year old scientist who found the Lazarus Pits. Those have a very special healing ability that brings the dead back to life. Your friend Eric must've been his most recent patient." Said Bruce. It took a few seconds for me to realize exactly what he said. "5000 years old! Are you kidding!" I asked in sheer surprise. He shot me a look. "Right… Batman, World's Greatest Detective, also known to the world as Batman, World's Worst Practical Joker." I did a little more research before leaving the tower.

Back at my apartment, I found a news report on TV about a bank robbery. But the robber was Eric. "Oh no no no Eric! What the hell are you doing?" I yelled to the TV. I dressed up in my Scorpion Warrior outfit and got going to that bank. By the time I arrived to the bank, which may have been a few hours of flying since that particular bank was all the way on the other freaking side of Metropolis, it was besieged by police, and surrounded by a huge crowd. Eric must've seen me coming cause a few moments before I landed, he called out my superhero name.

"Well well well, Scorpion Warrior, man of the hour. And betrayal of friendship!" After I landed, I tried talking to him. "Eric what the hell are you doing? I never knew you were capable of… of being a goddamn bank robber! Has the shock of being brought back to life caused you to snap!" I said to him, nearly heartbroken at his change of heart. "This guy right here. Don't trust him to come to your rescue anymore. He left me to die!" The shock of what he was doing paralyzed me. I couldn't move. I was only following him with horror on my face, and tears building up behind my eyes.

"That's right, I died! I was brought back to avenge myself!" 'No! No! No! Eric, what the hell are you doing!' "Would anybody like to hear the story?" The whole crowd started murmuring at that last statement. A young girl piped up. "But mister, the Scorpion Warrior wouldn't do that!" 'Well at least someone in this crowd's defending me.' "Oh? Sweetheart, are you sure? I mean, take a look at me." He turned his attention to the crowd. "Everybody, there's a famous superhero you all know and love called Superman. He has a little clone, who's name I'm not so sure of. I was investigating a drug ring that was happening at a building. I called a good buddy of mine who just so happens to be close to your treasured Scorpion Warrior." He turned towards me.

"He told you where I was right? Why didn't you try to help me!" He asked me while taking a few steps toward me. I couldn't answer him. He then turned his attention to the crowd again. "Ha… haha! See! He's not answering me. Because he doesn't want to reveal the deep dark secret that he let me die! Superman's clone just happened by that same building. He thought he was Superman himself. He thought he was doing good by stopping the drug trafficking ring. I called my closest friend cause I knew he'd be able to ask the Scorpion Warrior to help save me. I was in over my head "pal" and YOU didn't come to rescue me!" His face turned into the most serious scowl I've ever seen in my whole life. He started speedwalking toward me.

"Eric," I said after I finally gathered enough strength to say something. "I listened in on that conversation. Jake was actually looking for me while he was talking to you, but I was already on my way to your location. I was TRYING to rescue you. But Bizarro blew the place up before I got there." I told him. He wasn't listening. "LIAR! You didn't want to save me! Why didn't you get there fast enough then!" He was practically screaming in my face now. And his voice was starting to break. "I didn't get there in time because I wasn't fast enough to get there in time. I'm sorry! I fought Bizarro after I found out what happened, but before I was about to deal the finishing blow, I was stopped by Superman and his cousins."

"Don't lie to me!" That was it, I tried punching him to shut him up but he was faster than me. 'Oh shit.' "Haha see? He never saved me and now he's attacking me for no reason! What more is there? Huh "pal"?" Then he kneed me in the gut and, while I was doubled over, he kneed me in the face. That last attack threw my head up and he took that opportunity to roundhouse me in the face. "How do you expect him to save the rest of you when he couldn't save me? Huh?" While he was distracted, I tried to kick him down the stairs but he dodged in and, somehow, kicked me hard enough to send me flying into the bank. There were still people inside. "Get out of here everybody! NOW!" All the people that were in the bank abandoned it without a second thought.

Eric followed me inside the bank and, since nobody was in the bank we were able to talk freely to each other. "Eric, why? Why are you doing this!" I asked him. "Didn't you hear my big speech out there? I called you for help because I thought you COULD help me. Boy was I wrong." He said. I could feel the betrayal in his voice. I could tell our friendship ended. "But we're friends…! Aren't we?" I pleaded to him. He started unbuttoning his shirt and revealed a vest with bombs. "What are you doing!" I asked him in shock and horror of the bombs. "Our friendship ended when Bizarro fried me. WE'RE FRIENDS NO MORE! Now I'm going to show YOU how it feels to fry! In 30 seconds, these bombs will blow! And you will feel what its like to fry!" He said. "I can't let you!" 'J'onn talk to me quick! How powerful are those bombs!' I asked J'onn in our mental link. 'Enough to take out 8 city blocks!' "NOO!" I flew towards him, grabbed him, and started flying towards the ocean. 'If what I understood what Superman told me about that radiation supercharging me, I should be able to hold my breath long enough to keep him in the ocean! And if my skin was supercharged as well, it should be almost as tough as Superman's.' "There's 10 seconds left, "old pal". Whatever your thinking, you better do it quick." I got to the sea in 5 seconds, and in 3 got to the bottom of the ocean. In 2 seconds, the bomb detonated, obliterating his body but not doing much damage except for a big splash above the water. Since we were underwater, the explosion wasn't as potent. My invulnerability protected me.

'I can't believe it… I lost my closest friend again.' 'Its not your fault Jacob.' Said J'onn trying to cheer me up. 'Well he's right. How am I expected to save lives if I couldn't even save the life of my closest friend.' I said. 'Do you realize what you did Jake?' I heard Superman say. 'Didn't J'onn say that that bomb was powerful enough to take out 8 city blocks? You just saved plenty of lives today. Thanks to you, those people can go home to their families. And they can live another day.' 'Thanks Clark.' I flew back to the bank to a big round of applause and cheers from the crowd surrounding the bank, but I wasn't feeling good about myself. I was hiding my sadness behind a smile.

Some time later, I was sitting on a tall building deep in thought, looking at my mask in my hand. 'Eric was right. I couldn't get there in time to save him from Bizarro.' I started to tear up. 'I couldn't save Eric, my best friend. If I couldn't save one person, no… if I couldn't save my best friend, how AM I expected to save lives? Maybe I should take Zatanna's offer and let her strip me of my powers. No. That fight may have been a huge blow to my self esteem, but I will continue to use these powers to combat villainy.'

A week later, I was walking along the street when a little boy came running up to me and asking for my autograph. "Uh… I don't know what you mean buddy." I said to him. "You're the Scorpion Warrior aren't you? I'm your biggest fan." Then a big crowd started surrounding me and saying things like "Forget mages, I want your autograph" and "Scorpion Warrior, talk to me please!" and "Can you do magic too?" They were practically begging for autographs and taking pictures of me. 'Mages…? Negi…?' Well since they know my secret, I just flew up then teleported to the tower. "Superman! Something's wrong! All of Metropolis knows my secret."

To be continued…


	15. Relative Magi

Key: "Talking" 'Thinking' [Story recap/Non-story related text]

Scorpion Warrior

Chapter 15

Relative Magi

[On the last chapter of Scorpion Warrior, Jake had a blast from his past when one of his closest friends seemingly came back from the dead, seeking revenge. The friend of his was a young man named Eric taken during the prime of his life. Eric was brought back by Ra's Al Ghul and wanted revenge against Jake for not saving him when he needed him the most. But a week after the fight, someone must've spilled Jake's secret of being the Scorpion Warrior because then he was mobbed by a crowd asking him for the Scorpion Warrior's autographs.]

"Superman! Something's wrong! All of Metropolis knows my secret." I tried calling out for him but he wasn't here. His super hearing would've let him hear me all the way from the engine room. "He's not here. I am though." I saw the Flash coming out from behind the monitor room. "Pizza?" He offered me. Even in my time of crisis, I couldn't resist a slice of pizza, unless there was a life in danger. "Sure." I said. "So what's up?" He asked me. "Weren't you right there?" I said sarcastically. "Somehow, a bunch of people figured out my secret." I said seriously this time. "Oh my god, you're the Scorpion Warrior!" He said. I could tell by his tone of voice that he wasn't being serious. "Not funny. What do I do?" I asked him. "You could figure out the source of where that all started." He told me. "Flash, I don't say this very often, but you are a genius." I told him. "Ow! They should call you Ego Bruiser. Seriously, hurtful much?" He said. "Not what I mean. What I mean is, when that crowd mobbed me and asked me for autographs, I heard somebody mention mages. I think this has something to do with Negi." I said. "That little midget mage who's class you helped saved a few months back?" He asked me. 'Wow… I guess its true. Not only does Metropolis know my secret, but they probably also know about Negi's type of magic too.' "You know about that?" I asked him. "Yeah, for about a week or so. I'm not even sure how I knew, I've never even seen the kid before." He said. 'So it is true. This all started a week ago.' "I need to go back to Japan." I told him. "No problem, these teleporters will take you anywhere on Earth."

My cell phone rang so I answered it. "Hello?" I said when I put it to my ear. "Jake? Is that you?" Said a really familiar voice on the other end. I've heard that voice before. "Negi? How'd you get my number?" I asked him. "Nodoka's a mind reader. She knows your name and her artifact allows her to read all your thoughts." He told me. "Are you serious? Negi that's an invasion of privacy!" I told him, anger in my voice. "I'm sorry, but this was an emergency! All of Mahora academy knows our secrets." He said. "Our? What do you mean our secrets?" I asked him in confusion. "The part of my class that didn't know I was a mage mobbed me and asked me to perform magic for them. They also asked me why I didn't tell them you were a superhero." 'So it did start there!'

[Over at Negi's holding place]

"That's enough Negi." Said a voice. The person the voice belonged to took the phone and hung it up. "I might be able to talk to them and give you a lighter sentence." Said the person holding the young mage.

[Back at the tower]

"I'll be there soon. Don't worry… Negi?" The phone went dead. "Flash, I have to go."

[Over at some random place I'm unaware of]

"He's coming. Now don't forget, if this works, you'll remember his secret. Don't let it slip at all." Said Nodoka to a group of people who're possibly her friends. "Right." Her friends said all at once. She took out her phone and dialed a number.

[Back at a teleporter]

That number turned out to be mine. "Who now? Nodoka?" I answered it. "Hello?" "Jake." She said on the other end. "Nodoka?" I asked in slight confusion. "I know what's going on. Come to the coordinates I'm about to text to you." She told me. I figured out what was going on. "Right." I told her. A few minutes later, the coordinates came in. "Okay you might want to move a few steps back." I told her. A moment later "Okay. Go." I punched the coordinates into the keypad and stepped into the teleporter. "Hold up, I'm comin' with you!" I saw a red blur zoom towards the teleporter, Flash came with me.

[At Nodoka's meeting place]

"Hello Nodoka. Hello everybody." I said to everybody when we landed. "This is my friend. He's another hero, but he's just superfast." I said with a joke. "Hello Flash." She said to him. "Uh… Jake? What'd she say?" He asked me confused. "I think he can't understand me. He doesn't speak Japanese." What Flash heard was "Kon'nichiwa furasshu." I still had that translator on me. I gave one of the translators that I had to Flash. "Okay now try." I said to Nodoka. "Hello Flash." She said to him. "Hi Nodoka, hi everyone else." He said to them. Everyone said hi and bowed to him. 'So its true. More people do know my secret then.' "So should we go get Negi then?" I asked everyone in confidence. "Yeah!" Everyone said quietly.

Asuna and Ku Fei, one of the girls I met back in Kyoto, snuck into the building and I was able to watch their every move with my x-ray vision. They climbed to the top of some rafters and waited for a couple of the mages to walk by before they knocked them out. 'Whoa… go girls.' "Okay…" I surveyed the rest of the building to see if there were anymore guards. "Okay. There aren't anymore guards on the first floor. We're good to go." I said. "How do you know?" Asked one of the new kids who figured out my secret, Chisame Hasegawa. "I have x-ray vision." I told her with a grin and the peace sign with my hand. She glared at me and that instantly killed my mood. 'Killjoy.' "Alright lets move." I said, and Flash zoomed in with the rest of us following after him.

There was a long spiral staircase. [Always a spiral staircase. I know it's a HUGE cliché, I agree, but I'm trying to keep the chapter as close to the manga as possible. More info after the chapter ends.] Everyone was running down, Flash was sliding down the rail on his feet like a surfer on his surfboard, and I would float down while keeping pace with the runners. 'What the hell's going on? We should've hit bottom some time ago.' "Hey Bookworm, are we almost there yet?" Complained Chisame while we were all going down the stairs. "It took 40 minutes to go down 30 floors? This isn't as deep as I saw…" I said while walking forward. "Wait! Jake stop!" Called Yue. BOOM! Before I knew it, something rammed into me, knocking me into the wall behind us and knocking me unconscious. I woke up a little later to see Nodoka and Chisame being crushed by a 3-headed Cerberus with snakes for a tail. "Nodoka! Chisame!" I flew over and rescued Haruna before she was eaten by one of the heads. "I'm minoring in Greek mythology and I've never heard of a creature like this." I said. "Wherever Nodoka got her information from must've been wrong." Said Haruna. "Who cares about that, get us out of here! We're being crushed!" Called out Chisame. I dropped Haruna a safe distance away, sped towards the Cerberus creature and uppercut it in the chest.

It swiped at me, but I flew out of the way and launched my heat vision at one of the heads. All of a sudden, it looked as though space itself was cracking apart. "Uh… what the hell's going on?" I asked nobody in particular. When space cracked apart enough and broke apart, we were in a big room and there was a little toddler with 3 dolls at her feet. One of which was the same monster I just fought against. "I repeat, what the hell's going on?" I asked again. "Well…" Yue began. "This was all an illusion brought on by that little kid over there. He was just playing with us, but Miss Smarty-pants figured out a spell to beat it, and here we all are." Said Flash. "Yeah cause that happens EVERY day." I said while rolling my eyes.

[To be continued]

[So… here we are at the very end of the chapter. As I said earlier, when I involve mangas like Negima or and FMA into the story, I'm gonna try and keep it as close to the chapter I'm including as I can, while changing some of it to compensate for Jake and Flash being in there. Now you know, and learning is half the battle. Sorry, couldn't resist. :P]


	16. Student Warrior

"Talking" 'Jake's inner thoughts' [Story Recap/Author's notes] (Voiceover) –"Comm link"–

Scorpion Warrior

Chapter 16

Student Warrior

[Last time on the Scorpion Warrior, a week after Metropolis's discovery of Jake's secret, he went to Japan to meet up with Negi and his class after figuring out that the discovery started somewhere in Japan. What'll happen next?]

"Its true." Said Flash. "Diana's younger sister does it all the time. Superman's vulnerable to it too." He said to me. Considering my powers came from weaponized Kryptonite, "Don't tell me I'm vulnerable to it too." I pleaded. "That's not like you kid." He said. After the kid that caught us in that illusion ran away, Negi and his group ran ahead, and Flash and me were walking along, talking. "Your powers came from weaponized Kryptonite. You didn't come from Krypton. You don't have Clark's weaknesses. In fact, that stuff supercharged your body so who knows what'll happen next to your body. You can already beat anybody in an underwater breathing contest. Also, your brain could be next. You could be as smart as Clark. Really, the only thing that I can really think of as your weakness for now is your face. Careful, left hook might break your jaw." He said. "Wait…" I said as I recounted my first adventures 3 years ago. "The time at the bank, and when I first took out Metallo… these guys shot me in the forehead, but it didn't break the skin." I told him. "Well, with your advanced healing factor also affecting your skeleton, its probably making your bones tough to break. But when Batman punched you in the mouth the time after Grodd's defeat, you bled. That's because your mouth isn't bone, and your jaw's hinged to the rest of your skull. Your teeth can't be broken either. If your teeth weren't affected by the Kryptonite, your lip might not have been as swollen." (That was not a fun time.) "Everybody's got a glass jaw." He told me.

"There you guys are." Said Asuna when we got there. "Sorry, I guess we just got lost in talk. Flash is trying to help me make sense of my powers." I told her. "Anyway, we got the kid to his dad and you guys just barely missed them." Asuna continued. "And, a week ago, Professor Negi got a time traveling watch named Casseopeia." Said Yue. "Cassiopia? The Greek Goddess?" I asked her. "Who?" She responded in reply. "Cassiopia, the Greek Goddess. Beautiful, but also arrogant and vain." I told her. "And you're MINORING in Greek mythology?" Said the always-sarcastic Chisame. "No," Continued Yue. "This particular watch is named Casseopeia. Not after the Greek goddess but by one of our classmates." Before we started walking down a tunnel, Negi told me of our plan. I was using my x-ray vision to search for magical roots. 'What have I been reduced to? I'm the Scorpion Warrior, and I'm using my powers to search for plants. I've become a botanist.' There was a roar behind us. "Huh? What was that?" I asked. "What are you talking about?" Asked Asuna. I didn't hear the noise anymore. "Huh… I thought I heard something." I said with a shrug, and then went back to searching for the glowing roots.

"So Negi," I asked. "What's the plan when we find this tree of yours?" "If you're implying that the tree is fake your wrong, it's real. As for the plan, Casseopeia allows us time travel. So I was thinking that we go back one day, I take a rest, go back another day, rest, and so on." He explained. Flash and I exchanged looks. "Something wrong?" Asuna asked us. "Yesterday was the day my dual identity as the Scorpion Warrior was revealed." I said to them. "You think there's a mole in the Justice League?" Flash asked me. I put on my thinking face. "Hmm… it seems unlikely… the only people from the Justice League that have been to Japan are me, J'onn, and now you, Flash. I'm guessing that whoever told whoever leaked my secret must've been someone we fought during my first trip to Japan." I figured.

–"Jake!"– Called a familiar voice. "Y-yes Batman?" 'Oh geez… I'm gonna get chewed out big time.' –"Where are you and Flash?"– He asked me. Flash and I exchanged looks again. 'Oh man, with these closed circuit comm links, I can't use the tunnel reception excuse to hang up.' –"Your coordinates say you're in Japan. What are you doing in Japan?"– He asked me again. "Uh…" I didn't know what to say. Even though the whole world, including Bruce, knew my dual identity, I didn't know what to say. So I hung up on him, took off the comm link, and smashed it as hard as I could against the wall. I did the same for Flash's. "Hey what the hell was that about?" He asked me, a little freaked out about my actions. "I didn't know what to say to him. I panicked! I hung up on him cause I didn't know what to say. He would've called you too, so I smashed your comm link too." I said, sort of freaked out myself about Bruce calling me. "It's okay though," Said Negi. "When we go back in time, he won't know that happened. Only present day Batman will know. All you need to do is get another communicator.

I started walking backwards in front of the group. "You see Flash? He's right. We go back in time, Batman won't know what happened." I said. "But how will you explain the extra us?" I put on the same face I put on when I started thinking earlier. "Hmm… I'm afraid to say this, but when we change the past, we'll cease to exist. It doesn't matter how powerful someone is, if they go from the future to the past and change one little thing about it, present day us will cease to exist. And even if the time ripples didn't affect people from one week into the future, if we can't get another one of those time watches, we'll be stuck one week in the past. We won't be able to return home, we won't be able to go back to the Watchtower, and we'll be forced to spend the rest of our lives in Japan. Plus, the one week between my last fight and now, I've never even visited Japan. So, unless Flash visited Japan for any reason, we'll have no fear of running into our past selves here. Negi, you and the rest of the group will have to be on guard and NOT run into your past selves. If that happens, I'm afraid of the consequences." I explained to everyone. "I'm sure Chao or Hakase would be able to give you guys another time watch, or us another time watch so WE can return to the future too." Said Chisame. I hit something. "Ow!" And turning around, there was a giant door. "What's with the door?" Asked Haruna. I pushed it open and there was a bunch of tree roots. "This is it!" Shouted Negi. "These are the roots of the World Tree!"

[Due to Negi and the group's going to the past, this future will be the alternate future. Anyway, this is one week into the future.]

A mysterious figure ran into Gotham National Bank and demanded all the money. Some time later, after running outside with the all the money, the Gotham PD, Commissioner James Gordon, and Batman were all there. "Scorpion Warrior?" Called Batman in surprise.

[However that is not the reason for Batman's calling Jake in the fumbled future. Seeing as how Jake broke both his and Flash's comms before Bats had a chance to ask what was going on, I don't know what was gonna happen. In fact, I didn't even think of anything. I just put that there for the hell of it.]

"Its different than usual! Everyone, don't let go!" Negi started to concentrate then all of a sudden, we were all in the air … and we started falling. "Why are we in the sky?" Asked one of the kids in the group. "Like I know!" Said another. [I'm doing it like that since Ken Akamatsu didn't specifically say who said what.] "What happened!" Flash called out. I tried to stop my falling with my flight, but something was wrong. "I can't fly!" I called out. "Oh geez we're gonna die!" Called out another kid from the group. The roof of a patio was coming up. Fast. If something was gonna happen, it needed to happen faster. "Leave everything to me!" Shouted Negi. I heard his breathing. It sounded labored. In the middle of a skydiving lesson and somebody's breathing weirdly, then something was up. "Vente nos!" He called out. And in a split second, our descent slowed until we reached the patio. "Oh god I gotta puke." I said, and ran inside to the bathroom.

When I came back, I saw Negi passed out on the floor. "Negi!" Some time later, we ended up in the library. I tried to fly, but no use. I have my x-ray vision and my strength. 'What's going on with my flight?' Flash snapped me out of my thoughts. "Hey Jake, do you remember if J'onn had any mental contact with you at all this week?" The red speedster asked me. "Hmm… not that I recall. Since there's two of me… actually, he doesn't know that I'm a week into the past. If he tries to contact me, he'll try to contact the me that he knows is here." I said. "But what if he scans the whole world for you?" Flash asked me. "He'll know that there's two of me and I'll be screwed. Both me AND me might be screwed. Anyway what's up with mini-mage?" I asked. Chamo popped up on my shoulder. "That big time jump exhausted his magical energy. He'll be fine after a half day's rest." He said. "We could all use the rest." I said. I had a strangely familiar feeling in my stomach. "Meanwhile, I gotta puke again. Excuse me Chamo." I ran over to a trash can and [You know the rest].

To be continued


	17. Chapter 17

Key: "Talking" 'Thinking' [Story recap]

Scorpion Warrior

Student Warrior Part 2

Chao Lingshen

[During the last chapter of Scorpion Warrior, all of Metropolis learned about Jake being the Scorpion Warrior along with the whole world knowing of Negi's magical world. So he (Jake) goes back a week into the future and is now coming up with a plan to stop Chao from magically revealing everyone's secret. Lets see what they come up with. Oh and, for some reason, Flash tags along.]

I walked back into the main room of the library where I left Negi and the others; Negi was standing up. "So boy mage managed to get better eh?" I said with a hint of sarcasm in my tone. "So kid hero managed to get better eh?" Flash retorted. I just dismissed that comment. "Anyway," Chamo started. "Here's everything that you missed while you were gone: At 7 pm in the afternoon, Chao's planning to occupy six magic concentration points around the World Tree with approximately 2500 robots and 6 giant weapon life forms to create a giant magic formation within three kilometers." "Six giant weapons!" I said in shock. "Yes." He continued, a bit of impatience in his voice. "Then she's planning on activating a forced recognition magic on the whole world." Setsuna continued for Chamo. "That robot army is pretty strong." Asuna told me. "Don't worry. With me here, and considering at our point in time you know my secret, I won't let anything bad happen to you guys." I said with complete confidence. "We didn't think you'd be able to stand up to six of those giant robots though," started Flash. "So we came up with a defensive plan." Finished Chamo. "Gee thanks for the vote of confidence Flash," I sneered at him then looked back to Chamo. "What's the plan?" I asked him.

"I call it Point Defense. We pick one of the spots I mentioned earlier, and protect it. If we can keep that spot, Chao shouldn't be able to activate the big magic." He said. "And Metropolis, or most likely the world, wouldn't learn of my secret." I said in total confidence. "But don't forget that this is just a defensive plan." Said Negi, putting a total dampener on my confidence. "If we consider our differences in strength, we won't be able to hold them off forever." Said Kaede. 'When did she get here?' She actually made me jump. "Right. So we also came up with a defensive plan. Yue?" He motioned to Yue and she got herself prepared to announce the plan. She started to say something, but started blushing and ran off into the next room with Asuna chasing after her.

"Okay, how bout if I take it from there," Said Setsuna when she stepped up. "About this giant forced recognition magic; on top of it being a ceremonial magic that uses magic formations, a complicated ceremony lasting for more than ten minutes as well as spell incantations from the spell user is required for its activation. Along which, under the limitations of being Grand Magic, the spell user has to carry out the ceremony in a relatively open space without any obstructions, such as roofs and stuff like that." She announced. "The spell user is most likely Chao, which means she'll be appearing on the top of a roof somewhere inside the three kilometer wide magic formation at least ten minutes before the activation. And that's our perfect chance." Continued Chamo. "So with that information, we came up with this plan." Finished Negi. "That whole announcement wasn't the plan?" I said with obvious sarcasm. "This is my favorite part." Flash whispered to me with his typical childish attitude.

"While we're defending a concentration point somewhere, the big magic won't activate. During that opening, another team will find and capture Chao Lingshen no matter what. At that point, victory will be ours." Announced Chamo. Flash got up and asked for my opinion. "I like it. Considering we have no other choice," I figured. "There are still some holes in the plan though. For one, how the hell do we find Chao in a three-kilometer wide area? In America, three kilometers is almost two miles. Even if we COULD get a good defensive position on one of those concentration points, there's the matter of actually knowing WHERE Chao is in those two miles." Then I got to thinking. "It still feels like it's not enough." I said. "And that's where I came in. I thought that exact same thing," Negi started to say until Chamo interrupted him by mentioning Negi was in a delirious state when he came up with that. Asuna must've heard that part cause she stepped on him and held him to the floor with her foot. Not hard though. "Let the kid finish rat." She exclaimed. "Negi, you were saying?" "Ah, yes. Anyway, I thought that exact same thing, so I suggested we create an army." Continued Negi. "I took to it right away." Said Haruna with a slight evil grin that rubbed me a bit wrong. "I still hate that all the non-magical students would get brought into this." The young wizard complained. "It's a festival isn't it?" Said Asakura. "Right. Even I'd want to participate in this." I called out.

"But we still didn't say who'd do what though." Said Konoka. "Right, cause we were waiting for the hero to come back." Said Chamo, who wriggled out from Asuna's death stomp a few moments ago. "Me? Why me?" I asked in confusion. Flash came up behind me and caught me in a headlock. "Cause you're perfect for the role of the leader in this situation. The wizard's a shrimp and no one here but me and you have any battle experience." "Yeah and you can't take anything seriously, can you?" I berated him. "Fine, I'll take command." I got up and got to a good spot. "In order to figure out where to send each of you, I'll need your skills." I started. Everyone had a blank look on his face. "He means he needs to know what you guys are good at in school so he can spread you out based on your experience in the field." "Thank you Barry for simplifying it." Everybody finally understood what I meant. So they each gave me their skills. "The nurses and fighters are with me," I announced boldly. "Everyone else, announcement ads."

Negi almost lost his balance, and I was able to catch him before he fell. "Ah so the boy mage still hasn't gotten all his strength back after that time jump yet eh?" I put a bit of emphasis on the word boy, considering Negi is still ten years old and he needs to keep his strength up. I put him on the sofa to rest.

It was almost time for the event. In that time, Asuna and Ku Fei were able to convince their class president to help arrange the whole event, Konoka, Setsuna, and Chamo convinced Konoka's grandfather to get supplies from another world, and the announcement ads group got the word out about a survival shooting game. It sounded fun, but I'm still not sure what effects magic has on my powers. Negi mentioned to me that the giant tree in the middle of the school was, and I'm just paraphrasing here, spewing magic and right now, my powers are at full strength. So I guess the reason why I didn't have any adverse effects during my trip to 1914 was because I fell unconscious when Ultraman blasted Earth-2's Lex Luthor and I with his heat vision, so I guess time travel just has an adverse effect on my powers.

So I went to the main plaza of the school where the class president was giving an announcement. "As stated above, this is the renewed final day event! We await for your participation!" There was a demonstration of the equipment that I assumed Konoka convinced her grandfather to get from that other world. There were two offensive and defensive factions. The robes they were wearing served as a safety device, that's good so they won't get too critically injured. The weapons they were using were those little toy wands that look like the wands used on Fairly Oddparents.

"What is that?" I asked in skeptic surprise. "Don't underestimate it just because it looks cute. With one simple incantation…" The announcer thrust the wand in the air and a giant firework effect shot out which caught me in more surprise than I had when I found out what that kryptonite did to me. "Don't worry though. That light does not affect the human body. Plus, there are also various other types of weapons, such as bazookas." She shot a missile in the air, which exploded like more fireworks. "Are you sure that's entirely safe…?" I asked with more concern than anything else.

I was in the library trying to get myself calm, to no avail. I kept imagining the worst-case scenario. 'If we lose, the world knows about magic and my secret.' Barry walked over to me and tried to pep me up. "Come on, Jake, what're you worried about?" I explained my worries to him. "Are you kidding? You're the Scorpion Warrior. Sure, you got whooped by Grodd and needed me to bail you out," I ignored that comment and continued looking out the window. "But don't worry. We've all seen you in action pal. You'll do great." "Thanks Flash. I need that, sort of."

I went back outside and saw a whole bunch of flares shooting up and exploding in the air, so I rushed over to learn that it was only a test for the wands to make sure they're working right. 'So the event hasn't started yet.' "Hey," one of the participants called out. "Where's his outfit?" "That'll be explained soon enough." I told them.

I got up to the center of the plaza. "Negi and his group have asked me to overlook this entire operation. Under my leadership, I promise you that this event will be ours. Now, the enemy's target is the symbol of the school, the World Tree. Participants will be asked to split into 6 groups and defend one of six strategic points placed around it." I started. "Such as the World Tree Plaza or Tatsumiya Shrine South Gate." Continued Setsuna. "And, as usual, the top rankers will receive luxurious rewards." Added the class president. "Uh… right," I was a bit annoyed at the latter's interruption. "If the defense point you belong to get occupied by the enemy, it's game over; you also lose the reward. While helping out the comrades in your group, let us fight an evenly balanced battle. Lastly, if you are not participating in the event, please evacuate inside the main building of the school."

There was a half hour left before the attack. I was in the library testing my powers. I tried flight; that worked. I lifted up one of the bookshelves to test my strength. I found some paper and got a bucket of water to test my heat vision; burned a big hole right through. "Seems all my powers are working wonderfully." And x-ray is working right as well. "Chao, I'm ready for whatever tricks you have up your sleeve." I noticed a familiar green hue outside in the air. "Wonder what that is…" I said to myself.

To be continued


	18. The Longest Chapter I've Ever Written

Key: "Talking" 'Jake's inner thoughts/Mental link between Jake and J'onn' _Flashback _(Voiceover) [Story Recap/Author note] **School festival reporter **"**Yelling**" '**Jake getting worked up in thought**'

Scorpion Warrior

Student Warrior

Part 3

Chao Lingshen

[Last time, we saw Jake in Japan plotting to take on Chao Lingshen to prevent her from revealing magic, and Jake's secret, to the whole world. This may be the last chapter of the story arc. But could this be the last chapter for our hero?]

There was an hour before the attack. I decided to check on all the defense points, starting with the World Tree Plaza. The unit that was already there told me they were down at the beach. "This place has a beach?" I asked aloud in surprise. "Yeah, it's down at Library Island." Yuna Akashi pointed me in the right direction. I walked down to the beach and saw a bunch of the non-magical students dressed in magical garb. 'Good to know the plan's working out.' "How's everyone doing?" I asked them after getting their attention. Being the leader of the plan did have its perks, but if we fail, I'll know that I'm to blame. "We're doing alright here. We're just preparing ourselves and reciting the terminology you guys gave us earlier." One of the participants told me.

I looked to the ocean. 'Wow. It's really beautiful…' "What the?" I saw a bunch of robots coming from the surface of the water. "Is that Chao's army? It isn't supposed to start for another hour!" I exclaimed. "It's way too early, but I'm sure we can do this!" Some of the robot's mouths opened up to reveal cannons. "Those are-!" My sentence was interrupted by the cannons shooting out at us and hitting the frontal flank and me, yet surprisingly it didn't kill us. It just stripped us all down to our underwear, but it stripped me of my top layer of clothes, revealing my Scorpion Warrior costume. 'Oh no! My costume! Everyone's gonna see again… wait, I can use this to my advantage.' "Hey, when did he get a magic repellant outfit?" One of the strip beam victims said. Yes… it's a magic repellant costume… and nothing else. Lets go with that. "No time for that! We gotta leave the area now!" We all started to run, when I stopped and told those that weren't hit to fight back.

I split from the group I was running with and veered back to the central campus library. "Guys! Problem! Chao… attacked… early…!" I was running the whole way cause I didn't have an excuse for my flight to all the civilians yet. I was genuinely tired for the first time since I started flying. "What?" Haruna called out in shock. "It's not supposed to start for another hour! How do you know?" "I wouldn't… be in… my… hero… costume…" I said between breaths. "What difference does that make?" Chisame responded. "That means yes!" I said. I slumped down in a chair. "Did anybody ask about the costume?" She asked me. "No. Well… I did hear somebody say something. But that was it." I explained after I was able to catch my breath. I must say it really is nice to know that I can still get tired after running that far. "Chao's front line caught the right flank and me in a surprise strip beam. It must've only removed the top layer of clothing." I finished explaining.

"We need a plan." Said Kaede Nagase. "Ugh… everybody's getting overpowered out there. We need to come up with something quick." I moped. "Some of the participants are about to get hit!" Called Flash. I rushed to the window to see a 4-legged tank arming its cannon about to shoot at a couple of the participants. "Those were the kids that led me down to the beach!" I yelled out. All of a sudden, it gets sliced in half. Then the surrounding robots all get destroyed as well. "What…?" What was that? "It's the hero units!" Haruna called out. "Oh right," Said Flash. "I forgot we were gonna use some of Negi's partners as hero units. Good thing too, cause they sure came in handy." After a bit, they jumped as high as Spiderman can when he goes all ninja. Flash must've seen my face because he said, "Jake, you can fly. Don't be jealous of that."

He sped around the school to get a survey of the damage so far then. "Well so far, the number of dead bots is well into the thousands. It's all going as planned.

A few moments later, I felt some tremors. "The hell…? Isn't it a little noisy outside?" "I can feel tremors from far away!" Called out Haruna. "I'm checking out the school festival live news right now." Chisame said. Everyone that was currently conscious hovered around the small screen that she was using to surf the Internet. **…Also a part of the performance? This is incredible.** "What's that?" A scared Haruna called out. **Can everyone see this?** "Yes." **These giant Martian robots are possibly 30 meters tall. We can see 3 of them!** "NOT GOOD! It's starting already!" Said Chisame. "Wait, weren't those giants supposed to be unmovable inside the school due to the barrier or something?" She continued. "Huh?" I asked in confusion. Understandable since I've never been here before.

Haruna and Nodoka were planning on waking Negi up for help. "Wait," I stopped them from going any further. "Don't wake him up until the moment we really need him. For now, let's let him recover all his strength." They each nodded quietly. "We should contact Chamo." Chisame said with authority. She got up and I took her place at the computer watching those giant robots. I clenched every part of my body to keep myself from freaking out.

One of those robots was mobbing the city, but was stopped by some giant floating circles. 'More hero units?' "Cell phone's not working." Said Haruna with a whole lot of concern in her voice. "It must be the signal interference." I called to her from across the room. "It's your call Jake, should we wake up Negi?" I was mulling that over in my head. I was actually leaning towards waking him up, and was about to say my opinion until I got interrupted by Yue, "The school's barrier fell due to a hacker?" "I used your artifact to get onto that Mahonet thing of yours. I'm not exactly certain of the details, but it looks like the school's security system is failing." Explained Chisame. "Isn't there anything we can do? By the way things sound right now, we're sitting ducks." Flash asked.

"The fastest way to neutralize the giant robots would be to revive the barrier, but…" Said Chisame. The concern started building in her voice. "But a B6 subnotebook like this with an 11B wireless LAN won't cut it!" I noticed Flash's face looked like he just got out of Inception. "It's too slow." I think I was able to dumb it down so even a five year old could understand what Chisame was saying. "What if you had a better computer?" He replied without skipping a beat. We all just looked him with surprise. "Barry, in the whole time I've known you, I have not once heard you say something so smart," I told him. "I didn't mean to offend you there, but that's genius." He told me no offense so I looked to Chisame and asked, "Would that work?" "It's not like I can pull a better laptop out of my ass and get to work. There's nothing a normal person like me can do." She replied.

"Seems like somebody needs to get their own artifact." Said the ever-clever Haruna. "What do you mean?" Chisame replied. "I'm saying, now's the time to smooch with Negi." "And this is the part where I leave." As soon as Flash heard the word smooch, he was halfway to the door. Chisame and Haruna were arguing with each other about why the former has to activate a provisional contract with the young mage.

Chisame still had her doubts even when Ku Fei got back with Chamo, and their class president and one other girl. Haruna cleared the room except for Chamo, Negi, and herself and me. "You know, Chisame, they aren't wrong. We could use whatever power we can get," I explained to her. "To be able to obtain a high-performance artifact with just a simple kiss, that's an awesome deal. If I were you, I'd go for it." I finished. "Why don't you kiss him then?" She replied hastily. "I already have powers. Plus, I'm 21 and a guy. Me kissing a ten year old boy would get me in so much trouble on so many levels; especially with my dad, the chief of police." I explained. She sighed in defeat, then looked over at Negi who was sleeping on the couch. I could tell she was trying to find a way around it. "You can't avoid it," I started as I walked over to the door. "I'm gonna give you guys some space to get to know one another." I finished with a sly wink. I got my head out the door to avoid a pillow to the head.

A few moments later, I heard a racket, so I peeked in. "Something going on?" Chisame was all flustered. "Get out of here!" She yelled to me. I went back to my side of the door. Then another moment later saw a flash, and Chamo calling out, "Pactio!" So I guess that makes Chisame a mage now. I leaned in to see Chisame turned away from Negi and her face flushed with redness. "You can leave the Internet to me. Don't make a mistake at the very end." She told us. "Right," I continued for her. "If you're still unsure, then call for me. I'll come and help you." I finished. "How's this, once we get to Chao, I'll stall her. If I lose in that fight, you should come in and finish it." We agreed to that.

I flew to the bell tower of the school just in time to see some giant pillars crash down on the giant bots like lightning on a tree, all but destroying it at the seams.

A shimmer of dark light caught my eye after the big pillar crashed, then disappeared almost as instantly as it showed up. All over the school, the same lights kept appearing and disappearing. "Oh no!" I rushed back to the room where Negi was resting. "Guys, we have an even bigger problem than the enemy's army starting early and the big robots that Asuna and Setsuna took down earlier…" I saw that Negi was standing. "Okay, good you're ready to go. Guys, we have an even bigger problem than the enemy's army starting early and the big robots that Asuna and Setsuna took down earlier… where's Flash?"

Just a few moments ago, I went out and bought some closed-circuit communicators and gave one to Flash. "Barry are you there? Come in, over." I called to him in the radio. I know they're primitive, but hey. What can I do? A few seconds of radio-silence got me worried. I repeated what I said into the radio. Still nothing. "Dammit! The bullets must've hit him. If something happened…" I said out loud with concern for my possibly fallen comrade. "What bullets?" Negi asked. I told him about the bullets and what they did. "We need to be careful then. He tore a bandage off his cheek, which made me rub the same area on my cheek, then he grabbed his staff, which I saw from Kyoto, and stuck a ring on his finger, which was new. "Let's go!"

"Negi, are you sure you're up to snuff?" I asked Negi. Since he used all that magic to save us from splatting like tomatoes on that patio, he was resting quite a long while. "I assure you, I'm fine." He assured me with nothing but pure confidence in his voice. I couldn't help but take his word for it. He sure looked all right. "Let's do this."

Since the class president and the other kid that was here earlier, Makie, were in the room, Yue went to the back to help Chisame out with her new artifact, so I went in there to check on them. "Hold onto the card and call out Adeat." She did so and the card morphed into… "A stick?" I said out loud. I guess we'll figure out what it does later. I walked out into a hallway in the library to try Flash's radio again. Still nothing. 'Some radio.' Then I broke it by squeezing it between my fingers. They were 200 yen, which is like 2 dollars in America, so no skin off my bones really. 'Barry…' Too bad I was with J'onn today or I would've asked him to locate Flash.

Hmm… I'm about 10 hours apart from America… J'onn, can you hear me?' Nothing. 'Okay, so either mental link has been blocked, or he doesn't know that I'm here.' So J'onn can't help.

I walked back into the other room. "Everyone's ready." Negi announced. Makie and the class president wanted to tag along. I tried to tell them it was dangerous and they should stay, but Ms. High-And-Mighty President insisted she come along. I tried fighting back, but she was dead set to helping us. "Who's gonna stop me? Some weirdo in a wetsuit?" (Well eff you too bitch… is what I want to say.) Being the gentleman that I am, I kept my pie hole shut. "Hey Class Pres and Makie! Come here a second. I need your help and it has to do with Negi." Chisame to the rescue. 'Way to go.'

We were all running to the door. "We're almost at the courtyard!" Said Ku Fei. We exited the hallway…

Only to come fact to leg with a giant tank of a robot with three of the same robots I saw rise up from the beach. And I had the pleasure of greeting them with my entire body. I literally ran smack into the tank's frikkin leg and fell right back on my ass. "Uh… heheh… n-nice robot… please don't shoot me…" So this is what its come too… crab walking. Me… the Scorpion Warrior… reduced to crab walking to get away from their already charging lasers. Three years of saving Metropolis and possibly the world and I'm about to get my ass lasered by a robot. And who would come to save me, again, but Flash! "You're alive!" I said in surprise. The others jumped out of the way and avoided a big blast. "Of course I'm alive. What gave you that idea?" Barry asked. "Why weren't you answering your radio?" I asked him. "The radio couldn't handle my speed. I accidentally fried the circuits." He said. "So I worried about you for nothing?" "Aw you worried about me? I'm flattered."

Negi launched a shockwave at the tank and took out the two front legs. Then obliterated the whole tank. "Remind me never to mess with Mini-Mage again." Said Flash. The three other bots were still up so I flew over and curb-stomped one of the bots' heads then bashed the other two against each other. "Brutal." Flash said in a mocking tone. "Oh please. Negi obliterated the tank, and you call me brutal. Let's just get going and finish Operation: Robot." Flash asked me why I chose that for the name, and, without missing a beat, replied with, "Cause we're fighting robots."

We got to some tramcars and I gave the group the wait symbol with one hand. As soon as I saw the coast was clear, I gave the go ahead. Negi, Yue, and Ku Fei got to the same tramcar as mine. Haruna and the ninja known as Kaede stayed back. "If Negi and Jake can fly, why don't they just leave us and fly already?" Haruna asked Kaede. "Chao has special equipment." She replied. "Plus, if I'm right, those bullets Jake mentioned earlier came from long range equipment, most likely a sniper. We have to be really careful." Flashed explained that before the accident that gave him his powers, he was a cop. "I didn't know that." I said surprisingly.

I heard a rustle from around the corner. "Negi…" I whispered to him. He caught my hint then jumped around the corner and pointed his staff. Another mage was there pointing their cross back at Negi. "Negi!" The latter mage said. "Things aren't looking good! The majority of the teachers have been taken out by Chao's special bullets!" She tried to explain what the bullets did but she got hit by one then disappeared in the same cloud that I saw earlier from the top of the school's bell tower.

"The sniper! Everyone get to cover!" I called out. **Things have truly become serious now. In front of an overwhelming difference in firepower, the world tree plaza's about to get taken by the enemy. **'Crap!'

A giant holographic Chao Lingshen appeared in the sky. "Looks like your having a tough time, ladies and gentlemen mages." 'Now we know what to look out for.' "I am the leader of this robot army: the evil last boss, Chao Lingshen. Your swift attacks in the first half were impressive, as expected of Mahora students. It appears that the rule of being able to get up even after getting hit was a little too lenient for such capable individuals like all of you. So, a new rule has been added to the game." 'What?' She held up a bullet that looks like it came from an AK-47. "Getting hit by this bullet means instant disqualification. On top of that, through the engineering department's secret new technique, the moment the bullet hits you, you will be forcibly sent to the loser room and made to sleep until the game ends." 'So everybody who got hit by that bullet will be all right! Yes!'

I was relieved to know that participants aren't in any REAL DANGER. "Rather than be disqualified from the game, I think being forced to sleep through the school festival's climax is a far more serious penalty, don't you guys think? Are we beginning to feel the thrill now? If you don't want to participate, feel free to forfeit at any time. By the way, I finished off your so called hero units." 'What! No!' I got angry with her with that part, which caused me to launch my eye beams at the hologram; just as good as the real thing I guess. "Now… try and stop my robot army." She finished off her announcement with an advertisement for a restaurant called Chao Bao Zi. 'Ego much.' Following a back and forth between the announcer and Chao herself, we all hid in the tramcars that we were hiding at, and Flash was in the other one.

"Guys, I'm gonna scope out to see where the enemy is, possibly draw the sniper out." I left the tramcar and started scoping the campus. After a few minutes, everything got quiet. 'Too quiet.' Then I heard a click. 'Huh?' I started looking around, nothing. 'Where'd that click come from?' Then something that sounded like a gun firing… followed by a whoosh. I ran to the source of the last sound only to see the same cloud that swallowed up the mage from earlier swallow the tramcar that I just exited; I flew back out of view of the sniper. "No!" I can't believe it. Flash zipped to my side and Kaede stepped out into the open. "Kaede!" I whispered loudly to her. "What are you doing? Hide!"

While the smoke from the black hole was clearing, some silhouettes were starting to come into focus. "No… it isn't…" The figures were the group I left in the front car. "No way!" I said in shock. "You and the sniper didn't plan this, did you?" Flash mockingly said to me. "Well… I'm surprised you escaped that Negi." 'What's that?' "How though?" I heard a voice come from a radio in the second car. "It's a trade secret Captain Tatsumiya." I noticed some electricity snapping from Negi's hand. "Negi…" I was about to tell him, until he shushed me and warned me that the sniper might hear; I nodded in agreement. "I'll take this one." Announced the ninja. "I'll take out Tatsumiya. You guys go on ahead." "Will you be alright?" I asked. She gave me a knowing smile, to which I nodded in response.

We were all ready to get going, since the sniper Tatsumiya was stalled, but Yue wanted to know something. She asked the sniper what she needed to know, then thanked her for the information. While we running to the suspected site of the grand magic, we ran into some more robots; Flash and I got between them and the rest of the group. "Be careful you guys." Said Flash. "That's Chachamaru?" I heard Ku Fei mumble. 'Chacha-who-now?' The taller robot said something about a target being acquired, then attacked.

She aimed for my face with a left jab but I was able to block it, until she got me with a jab to the gut. I fell to my knees and could barely breathe. The two smaller bots were about to shoot their guns, but Haruna released a bunch of clones of Chamo and the bullets hit them instead of the rest of the group. "Just like I thought." Haruna said. "Nice. Detonate the bullets by hitting them with a chaff." I was actually impressed by that quick thinking. Breathless, but impressed. Being a superhero, nothing impresses me anymore, but I had to admit THAT was some quick thinking. I would've hightailed it and tried to dodge the bullets as much as possible. The leader of the bots that engaged me had Flash in a corner with a whole bunch of quick strikes and he could do nothing but attempt to block all of her attacks. Surprisingly, his speed couldn't help him. A few moments later, she backed off and out popped two bullets from between her fingers. "Forgive my rudeness, but I shall now eliminate you all." At least she's polite about it.

"Dropped your guard!" I called out. A high kick to the chest sent her flying into one of the gun toters then into a wall a few feet behind them. "Whoa… I gotta keep hold on my strength." Ku Fei came up to me and told Negi, Nodoka, Yue, Flash and me to leave it to her and Haruna; but Flash insisted he stay with them, that they'd need his speed. Asakura must've stayed behind to be the announcer. I must've heard her in that little back and forth Holo-Chao had with the announcer.

"Hey guys, I need to ask you something," Some time after that little scuffle with the bots, it was just Negi, Nodoka, Yue, and I rushing to where the site of the boss battle will take place. "Why's Chao doing what she's doing?" "What do you mean?" Yue responded. I saw a shadowed figure on a rooftop close by. "Negi! Rooftop!" I called out. He threw a punch and seconds later, the figure was knocked off the roof; but not before the figure fired what sounded like three shots. "Sensei!" Nodoka pushed him out of the way and caught herself in a black hole, the same one that caught that mage with the cross and the tramcar that Negi and my part of the group were hiding in. "Oh no!" Me. "Nodoka!" Yue. "Don't worry, I'll save you right…" Negi started to say, but Nodoka interrupted him. "You can't! I can't help you this time. Do your–" She was cut off by the bubble disappearing. We just stood there… stunned. The group was getting torn apart every step of the way. "I can save her." Negi said. "What do you mean?" Asked Yue. "I can use Cassiopeia and go three hours ahead and bring her back with us." "You can't!" "Why not?"

"She's right," I butted in. "When you were talking to the sniper… Tatsumiya was it…? I noticed the watch was crackling with electricity. This next trip could be its, or worse, your, last trip, Nodoka wouldn't want that. Let's save Cassiopeia for when we really need it." I finished explained to Negi the importance of conserving the power of the watch and he grudgingly agreed. We stared at the spot where Nodoka disappeared, then took off again to the final battle.

"Why not Yue?" I was starting to get impatient with this kid. Earlier, she was getting tired from the running, so I carried her until we got to the rooftop. She asked me to let her down, then sparked a bit of an argument. "Let's go already. The longer we wait, the closer Chao is to achieving her goal." I was lying back on the rooftop letting my legs dangle then sat up moments later. "I'll catch up later," She started saying. "It's like what Nodoka said: We won't be of any help to you in this battle. Earlier, you were having that nightmare; I was worried you might still be unsure of your decision. Looks like you changed your mind." Yue finished. "Not yet, Yue. I will stop Chao, but I'm still not sure if that's the right thing to do." He grabbed Yue and pulled her up to our roof.

Some time later, I saw a big pillar of light shine. "Don't tell me one of the teams lost their zone already." I started moping. 'Not good…' Within the next couple minutes, a couple more zones got taken. "No!" Five of the zones have already been taken. "If this keeps up, we're gonna lose! Chamo, sitrep." I said. "Yessir. Like I said before, Chao's big magic starts around 7:37." He informed us. "Damn! That leaves about 20 minutes… before... when did Chao get a robot the size of Goliath? In fact, I'm calling it Goliath." I saw a **huge** robot. Like, I'm resisting all urges to call out for David to bring his rock and slingshot. "Guys… I don't think I can even dent that thing."

For about a minute, I went through every scenario using all my powers I could think of; the results of which involved me getting my ass cratered or squished between his hands. Total results: I cannot even touch Goliath. I wish I could call for Superman, but there are three problems: I'm in the past so I don't want to risk him seeing two of me, I broke mine and Barry's communicators, and when it comes to magic, and with all that here, he's basically anybody's bitch. He might not survive here. All the techies of the Justice League are all humans, and Goliath could pancake them. The magic users may get overpowered. The metas… I'm not risking anybody seeing two of me; as for their abilities, it'll all depend on what they can do.

Goliath opened his mouth, and all but raped everybody with that giant beam. There were a bunch of explosions at his chest… that immediately get swiped away. "We gotta do something, let's get going!" I told Negi, who was already halfway to Goliath's location. I fly up to get a better look just in time to see him blast a hole in the robot. "No… way. He did it? Way to go Negi!" I saw a green hue in the sky, but decided to not pay much attention to it; just wanted to relish the victory David took against Goliath… Negi vs. the Big Bot.

I flew over to Negi to congratulate him personally. "Negi! Jake!" I heard a voice call for us from below. "The aviation department found Chao! They say she's on an airship about 4000 meters above the World Tree Plaza." Asakura asked Negi if he knows what he's doing. "Yes." He responded. "Well, there's nothing left to say except go on! And good luck!" I looked to Negi. "So, this is it eh? The final battle?" He nodded a yes, giving getting excited and me a big grin. "Then let's get going!" Then we both got going and flew up to where Asakura pointed us. 'There's a green hue up there?'

**There they go! The infamous kid teacher Professor Negi Springfield and friend…** 'Really? And friend?' **Jake Smith a.k.a. Scorpion Warrior!** 'Oh…' **They're currently headed for the last boss, Chao Lingshen, 4000 meters above Mahora Academy!** I started to feel confident for some reason; I noticed Negi was as well. **However…** 'Dammit… why's there always a however?' **There is no fixed scenario in this game! Everything's not over yet!** 'Damn right everything's not over yet!' **The last boss Chao Lingshen has no intention to lose at all!** 'Eff that. We'll kick Chao's ass!' **Pretty soon, the final fight will take place between this year's Mahora Fight's Runner-Up, Negi, Jake, and the organizer of the Mahora Tournament, Chao Lingshen, will begin! Don't stop until we have a winner!** 'And that shall be yours trulies.'

'Do not get cocky, Jacob.' I stopped in midair. Negi must've noticed me. "Jake? Is something up?" "Yeah, us. But we're way up. But that's not what I stopped for." Negi sat there looking at me. "Get going! Fight Chao. I'll catch up." He nodded. "Rapide Subsistat!" He called out. 'Wha?' He sped up, but got interrupted by three of those black hole bullets. "Oh crap!" I caught up to him and saw another model of one of the bots we fought on the ground… then got surrounded by what seems like a hundred more bots that look like the bots on the tank I ran into. "Oh crap!" We split up to avoid the shots fired by the bots. I did a 180 and heat visioned a few then sped towards the group firing at me, arms extended, then rammed into a couple, grabbing a couple more, and smashing their heads together. 'Looks like Mini-Mage is having trouble.' Soon as that thought entered my mind, a bunch of arrow looking projectiles fired out from his spot and took out a lot more bots. 'No use… more might show up soon!' The bot that shot the three bullets impeding Negi's path took aim at him. "Oh crap! Negi!" I sped to the bot as fast as I could but I heard a few more shots get fired from her gun. "No!"

I was too late to stop the bot from firing. The black hole bullets just missed him though; but didn't stop him from getting caught off guard. The force of the bullets bumped him off his staff. "**Negi! No!**" The bot was about to fire again. '**I'm too late!**' But a black explosion caught the bot off guard and made her misfire. I caught up to the bot and literally knocked her block off. "Ne- huh?" I was about to fly over to catch Negi, but a black-haired, dog-eared kid with a wolf tail. "Man… fumbling around with the small fries?" The boy said. "You don't deserve to call yourself my rival."

"Kotarou?" Said Negi. Moments later, we were all surrounded by more bots. "Oh crap! … Again! Hey Wolfy, think you can help with these bots while holding Negi there?" I asked wolf-ears. "No," he replied. "We're outmatched." That was until Asuna and Setsuna appeared and sliced all the bots. "Asuna! Setsuna! Yes! Just in time!" I called out to them. A bunch of other wizards, some on a broom, another on a giant shadow (?), another on one of those circle things that stopped one of the monster bots, all came in and blasted more of the aerial bots. I have never been more excited in my whole life. Asuna landed on the broom of the wizard that was dressed like the one that we saw on the ground with a cross and Setsuna had wings so she had no trouble in the air.

"Negi, Jake, go! Beat Chao! We'll take care of the rest!" We nodded, then sped off toward the blimp.

"Synchronization with the 12 spots of Holy Lands on Earth as well as the moon is complete. All that's left is to occupy the plaza in front of the World Tree. Everything's almost ready." A young girl about Negi's age said. "Alright," Said Chao. "Hakase, begin the final stage of the final incantation." "The completion incantation will take 11 minutes and 6 seconds. Is that alright?" "It's fine. Begin."

"Is it really the right thing to do, Chao? To go through with this plan…?" The other girl asked Chao. "It seems it's not my choice to decide, but theirs." Negi and I flew up the side of the blimp revealing ourselves to them; Negi looking cooler than me. "Did you really have to out-dramatic-reveal me Mini-Mage?"

'You have no time for that now, Jacob.' 'I know, J'onn. But being a superhero is about jokes right? That's what Spider-Man does.' 'Spider-Man does things his own way.' 'And Flash does too.' 'It's time to get serious, young Jacob. Do not get cocky. If Miss Lingshen's plans succeeds, it'll be pure chaos for the world.' I got serious now. 'I know. By the way, aren't you wondering?' 'I am a Martian. Nothing surprises me, not even knowing that you are here. I will not reveal that you are here to present Jacob.'

Negi and I landed on the blimp. "Well, Jake, you got serious all of a sudden." Negi mentioned to me. "Oh, I just figured it was time to lose the jokes. We have our identities to keep from the world. Oh, which reminds me…" I looked to Chao. "Where'd you get my identity from anyway?" Without skipping a beat, she replied with, "A baldy and a cop." A baldy and a cop? Oh. No.

"This time, we'll put a stop to your plans, Chao!" Negi called out. Chao just laughed a little and flung off her robe and revealed, honestly, a pretty badass suit. "Very well. Then I too shall prove my beliefs with everything I have! Here I come!"

Negi pulled out Cassiopeia but Chao was right behind him in a split second. 'Whoa! I couldn't follow that!' Negi used Cassiopeia to get behind her then elbowed her in the side, causing her to fly to the other side of the blimp. "Whoa!" I called out. 'Is that karate? **Oh no!** **What did I get myself into?**' Chao got back behind Negi and got him with one of those black hole bullets. "Negi!" I called out. "Now Jake… it's your turn." She turned to me with an evil look on her face, but Negi popped out of nowhere and struck her in the chest.

For the next… I lost track of time already… few minutes, I guess, Negi and Chao were exchanging blows with each other, Negi getting hit with the black hole thing but coming back. 'This is intense. I'm not able to get a good read on either of them.' "Well Negi, I didn't expect for you to get this far." She was right next to me in an instant, which scared the hell out of me. I jumped to the side to gain as much distance as the blimp allows. "For you to get so skilled with Cassiopeia in such a short time, as expected of my ancestor." She said. "Ancestor? Negi, don't listen to her! First rule of combat, the enemy will say anything to get you flustered, then go in for the kill." I yelled to him.

"Don't worry, Jake. Chao, once I thought about using Cassiopeia for combat, it came to me right away." Negi explained how he was able to figure out a strategy to combat Chao's time jumping powers. "But… Negi-Sensei, both of them are easier said than done! To effectively make use of the Cassiopeia in direct combat, precision control down to the nanoseconds as well as accurate event prediction of the space time after jumping are a must!" Countered the other girl.

"Even the Cassiopeia 3 on my back is being controlled by the highest performance AI as well." Chao said braggingly. 'That tone… hold on…' I flew back behind behind her to get a better look at her watch. 'So… she's right.' I tried using my heat vision on her Cassiopeia, but at the last second, she disappeared. '**Where'd she go?**' A sharp pain on my back answers my question. She disappeared so she could warp behind me and kick me straight into the shoulders; knocking me back onto the deck. Negi and the other girl, Hakase I heard Chao call her, ran to me. "Are you alright?" I heard Hakase ask. "Y-yeah…" I struggled to my feet. 'Dammit… she really got me.' I popped my neck, and that felt **so** good. A couple seconds after I recovered, Chao flashed back into reality. "So, Negi… weren't you about to explain your control over your Cassiopeia?"

"Yes." He thrust out his Cass. "With this!" I look at the watch… and saw nothing. "I see nothing. What…?" "These are spirits." He started explaining. "I still see nothing. I don't like being left out of the loop. I like being in the loop." I joked… again. "These are the most basic magics that any mage would've learned first, magic of moving small objects and the magic of prophecy. These spirits govern over that magic." 'Cuckoo. Cuckoo.' "And yes, it is incredibly difficult to perform the precise controls and event predictions that you mentioned Hakase with such simple spirits like these. Applications from the study of magics, as well as high-level skill settings, are required.

"But I am most skilled in this kind of magic, more than that of offensive magic. I did graduate from Meridiana Magic School with the best grades the school has seen in ten years." 'I wonder if Mini-Mage is aware that bragging is uncool.' "Hey Chao," I called out. "Sounds to me like you just lost your battle advantage." "Right. Now please surrender peacefully and stop your plans." 'What? Why's she smiling?' "Hakase, begin the final incantation." "**What?** Chao, didn't you just hear Negi? You've lost. Give up. We won. You're finished." I told her. "It's alright, go ahead." Hakase walked over to Chao's side and started chanting some strange words. 'Guess we know what side she's on.'

"Can you shut up, Mr. Chatty?" Chao said to me. 'Mr. What?' "Anyway," She continued towards Negi. I looked at him and noticed he was hiding his Cassiopeia behind his back. "Looks like your hiding something." She warped behind him again, which made me jump. 'Again! I still can't follow that?' She flipped Negi's hand, somehow breaking his Cassiopeia. 'Oh no.' "Your Cassiopeia will only be useful for about… three more jumps at best. Worst case, it'll only have one more jump." She bragged. 'Well… we're boned now.' "I only need one more." Said an overconfident Negi. "Hey Mini-Mage, don't get too confident!" I called to him. "Wait," Said Chao. "Before that, I'll ask you once more, now that things have come full circle," I looked at Hakase continuing the chant. I couldn't use my heat vision without putting her in danger. 'Dammit.' "Can the child teacher figure the rest of the plan out? The meaning of my plan that is." I looked back at Chao. "Negi, Jake, will you not become my comrade? Let us accomplish that slight bit of justice against evildoers!" She said. That got me.

"**No way Chao!**" She and Negi both looked at me with surprised looks. "Being a superhero's given me plenty of insight into choosing my decisions carefully. But I didn't even need that long to remember that you, Chao, are the enemy. There have been plenty of times since I got these powers that I wanted to go back and change things… believe me…" I got to thinking about the accident that gave me my powers, then about David Cassedy. Maybe if I got him out of that household, he wouldn't have done that. "There is, and will always be, one person that I will always want to go back and save." I said regretfully. "Even today, I still blame myself for his death…"

"So join me," Said Chao. "I might be able to help you save him." I looked at her. Negi looked at me. I could tell that he could tell what I was thinking. Maybe if I did join Chao, I could save Eric. "I can't. If I did, something else might take him. Also, Chamo said that if your plan succeeds, there would be chaos in the world for the next ten years. 15, 20 years from now, your plan may be worth it. But for the next ten years, the world will be destroying itself. I can't let that happen. The world isn't ready for Negi's magic. So, Chao, to answer your question: you can forget about it! There's no way in hell I'll ever join you!" I looked to Negi for his answer.

"I did a lot of thinking myself as well, and I have thought about the same things Yue did. But, if your plan succeeds, then it might be possible to save some of the people within those common tragedies. No matter how I think about it, that is fact. As long as that point exists, I cannot deny you."

"**What are you saying Negi?** You can't say she's right!" I scolded Negi for his words. "If she succeeds, who knows what'll happen next." He turned to me. "Jake, the duty of us mages who live in the human world is to use our powers for the sake of the world and of its people. If it's only us school mages who get punished for the plan, then if it's for the sake of someone, then I am prepared for that." He explained.

"No… you better not be thinking what I think your thinking. Are you planning on joining the enemy?" I pleaded to him, hopefully swaying him to our side. "What about everyone you've ever befriended? Yue, Nodoka, Asuna, Setsuna… all our allies and friends. Are you giving all that up?" "Me wanting to be together with everyone, can't that be called a selfish desire as well?" I was shocked at what he was saying.

Chao warped behind Negi again, with the same speed as earlier. 'Not again!' A big black hole swallowed them up again. I heard something that sounded like something out of Mortal Kombat then a figure being blasted from out of nowhere! Out of the smoke… Chao rose; the Cassiopeia on her back malfunctioning, resulting in its destruction. Perfect. Now we're on even ground, no pun intended. "Chao… I cannot deny you." Negi said once all the smoke cleared. 'Say the right thing Negi.' "However, **I will not become your ally either!**" He called out boldly. [No pun intended on that either] A big blast of air caught my attention. I turned around and there was a big helicopter.

Chao's gone on the offensive. She started firing those black hole bullets towards Negi and me. I flew out of the way, but Negi… I don't even know. 'Okay, good. He made it.' He recovered and was flying on his staff. "Chao, why aren't you giving up? Stop this nonsense already!" I said to her. "No way, I've gotten too far to give up now." She flung a bunch of bots at Negi and me, which were all swatted in seconds. Looking back at her, she set up countless numbers of those black hole generator bullets and shot them at us. Negi has some kind of shield up, and he wasn't getting hit by any of them, but I was all but busting my ass dodging the bullets.

Negi started to get overwhelmed. He was surrounded with the black holes and it looked like he got hit by one. 'Oh crap… if he got hit, we're screwed!' "Those bullets are certainly a threat." 'Huh? Negi?' "However, I won't get so easily anymore! Now that you've lost the Cassiopeia which gave you an absolute advantage, someone like you, who cannot use magic, cannot win against us!" He called out. "Negi, what did I say about that overconfidence?" I said to him. "Magic? Who said I couldn't use magic?"

I turned to her. "Oh… crap…!" "Code… spell pattern circuit open. Seal released. Last tale my magic scir magister!" She called out some weirdo incantation in a language I could not understand. "**No way!** **She has her own incantation?**" "**Incantation? It can't be!**" "It is funny that I can use magic? I **am** Negi and the Thousand Master's descendant after all."

She said some more incantations that I couldn't understand, also gathering and condensing air into what looked like a bomb, and glanced at me. "**Oh shit!**" She launched the air at me like a torpedo and exploded right in front of me; throwing me to the deck of the blimp. I hit the wall behind Hakase. Hard. I started coughing hard, and started coughing up a little bit of blood. "S-son of a bitch…!" I struggled to my feet, but I was very dizzy and I my vision was getting very blurry. 'Oh… god… what have I gotten myself into?'

I saw her gather more air and launch it at Negi, him falling victim to the same blast that hit me and knocked him off his staff. "Oh no!" He was, however, able to recover and got back on his staff. 'Yes! Hang on… Negi looks as though he took half the blast I took… he doesn't even look like he's half as hurt. Clever… putting up some kind of barrier eh?' After some time, I noticed none of us were doing anything. 'She's distracted!' I took off flying as fast as I could, and was just about to deliver a right hook, but she stepped back and I missed… which distracted me and sent me crashing into the other wall.

I really felt that. 'Hold on… do I see markings on her body? I got it. She's using some sort of runes. But if they're on her body, she's going to kill herself. Nobody can handle that kind of strain!' "Jake, are you alright?" Negi called out to me. "Yeah!" I responded, although pretty slowly. "I don't think I can continue though… that last try really drained me. I'm wiped." I said weakly. My vision was blurry, it felt like I was going to faint. The green hue I saw in the sky turned out to be what was helping to power Chao's spell, but not only that, it was actually healing me. "Negi, tap out!"

He flew over to the blimp, but had Chao in tow. 'Not what I had in mind…' But I was able to improvise. I ran to the edge of the blimp's roof and flew off with this spiral motion, not spinning in a spiral motion like you would with a football to gain as many yards as you can, but like an object in a tornado; I caught her with a massive uppercut.

"_Dad? What aren't you telling me?" I asked him. He knew that since I have these powers, he wouldn't be able to lose me. He sighed in defeat and led me over to the couch. "When you were five, your mother died in a car accident, that much is true. But," he took a deep breath and sighed again._

Chao attempted a magically powered left hook, but before I knew it, I was behind her.

"_Your mother was a crime fighting hero using a special suit that helped her absorb kryptonite."_

I had no idea what happened there, and she took advantage of that and used the momentum from the initial magic fist and delivered it right smack to my cheekbone.

"_When we met, I was fresh out of police academy. I was a lazy slacker, but I knew what I was doing. At first, I didn't know what she could do, but there was one time we were walking along a building under construction and… there was a mishap with a crane and the line going from the crane to the I-beam it was carrying fell." My dad started. "It didn't hurt you did it?" I asked him. "No, what happened was that she jumped up and… caught it. With one hand." He said, acting out all the actions._

"_Wait… so, my accident with that weaponized kryptonite…" "Was pure stupidity in a completely half-assed and hair-brained scheme to win the girl you had a crush on back then, also known as an accident, but if I never met your mother and met somebody else who had you, you might've been dead. You must've inherited some mutation from your mother that gave her the kryptonite absorption." He finished explaining to me. "The way I see it, if it wasn't for her, you'd be a pancake cause of that I-beam and I wouldn't be around period." I said with a mix of sarcasm. "Okay, smartass." He replied without missing a beat. "Two years later, she went from being Ms. Lana Lang to Mrs. Lana Smith, and two years after that, you were born."_

That last strike sent me sailing right into the side of the blimp. Negi ran to the side of the roof. "Are you alright?" I heard him ask me. "I'm fine. I've taken worse." I flew up in front of her just in the nick of time to watch her finish a very familiar incantation. "**Oh crap!**" Was all I was able to get out before I was violently thrown back and bounced on the roof… right into Negi. We slid right to the very edge of the roof. "Negi, are you alright?" I asked him one we got to our feet. "Y-yeah…" He said between coughs.

"_But what about after she died?" I asked him. "Why didn't you remarry after the whole mourning period deal?" "Because after a few years, I tried to get back into the dating world, but none of them would work out. I've never been able to get back in the game. Besides, what would you think?" He replied. "I'm 18 dad. I would think if I hated every other woman you dated, wouldn't I be more immature than a ten-year-old throwing a tantrum over a toy his mom. So go out and get back in the dating world. I'm the Scorpion Warrior. I shouldn't hold you back."_

"Look at yourselves, you can barely stand. How do you expect to win?" Chao taunted. "With ten years of chaos awaiting the world upon our loss, there's no way we'll lose." I replied with sheer determination. "Negi, off to the side." He got out of danger and I stood up, although a bit weakly. "Kryptonite absorption eh?" I said cleverly. "Eh?" I heard her say as I was raising my hands. I breathed in and out slowly then my arms started glowing. "Oh… here we go." I pointed my hands forward and released a blast of green power from my palms. The target: Chao Lingshen.

To Be Concluded…

Holy balls this was fun to write. I hope it's just as fun to read. :D


	19. And here we go to short chapters again

Key: "Talking" 'Jake's inner thoughts' **Raised voice **[Story Recap]

Scorpion Warrior

Chapter End

[If you've been keeping up, the last chapter ended with Jake Smith absorbing the kryptonite radiation around him and using it against Chao Lingshen in a sort of concentrated blast of energy. This is the final chapter of this arc, so let's see what happens next.]

I thought I had her on the ropes, until she threw out a comeback. At the last second, she thrust her arms forward and introduced the ends of my kryptonite beams to her hands. "Crap!" I started tiring out. 'NO!' The kryptonite beams were starting to falter and then push back after meeting the beam attack that launched me into Negi earlier; the skin on my arms starting to tear and cut. "CRAP!"

Chao laughed evilly. "Tiring out there, Jake?" She mocked. 'Crap! She's right!' Her beams pushed mine all the way back almost to me, and my arms were starting to kill me. 'The kryptonite!' "Hey… Chao," I said, gritting my teeth and trying to not feel the pain that crept up my arms. "You can't… increase your own power without… giving something else up to… to compensate, can you?" I said to her. At this point, I can't falter. With my arms burning and Chao's beams catching up to me, there was no time to stall.

"Why?" She replied, a skeptic look on her face. "With… all this kryptonite and my ability to absorb it all…" I was hoping she would get the hint. She must've caught it because her eyes grew wide. "I know what you're thinking: you're trapped now. I've already started absorbing some of the kryptonite." As I said that, the cuts on my arms closed up and I started regaining my strength. One of the helicopters flew by us and I saw what looked like a video camera. Now was my chance to showboat before I beat her, though I could not let my guard down for an instant.

"And there you have it ladies and gentlemen," The width of my kryptonite beams grew wider and pushed back to Chao. "The underdog has beaten the champion. See, unfortunately, I was backed into a corner, but by absorbing enough kryptonite surrounding the blimp, I can power up these beams. I turned this tug-of-war for supremacy into a one-sided brawl. Chao can't do anything: if she cuts her beams, mine will overpower her and blast her full power. But my beams are already… oh no. Helicopter pilot, fly back! NOW!" I sensed that our beams were adding power to each other. "Negi, get Hakase and get out of here too!" I called to him. He grabbed Hakase and flew off of the blimp, as did the helicopter.

"What's wrong Jake? Don't want publicity? Afraid your secret identity will be revealed?" Chao called out to me. I don't think anybody here's ever heard of my alternate self. "No! Our beams are adding power to each other. If we don't cut them soon…" But it was too late to explain for what I feared was about to happen, happened. A big explosion threw us both back, me into the wall and Chao into the air. Boy did THAT knock the wind out of me. "That's gonna happen."

I caught my second wind in time to see her launching her own beam towards me again, which I was forced to counter with my kryptonite augmented beams again. "What are you doing Chao? Do you want that explosion to happen again?" I called out to her. "I was hoping you weren't gonna catch my attack again." She responded. "I don't want to have to do this Chao, but I gotta win!" I absorbed more of the blimp's kryptonite to power up my beams.

This time, however, that last explosion must've weakened her because my beams overpowered hers and blasted her right out of the sky… just to be caught by Wolfy. 'Kotarou to the rescue.' That was my final thought before passing out.

I woke up some time later on solid ground. "You missed the farewell party, Jake." Flash told me. For some reason, I felt bummed. She was the best opponent I've ever faced. She was the only one to really push me to my limits. "But that doesn't mean you aren't too late to say good bye to her." "What do you mean?" I asked him. "She didn't leave yet. We still have time to say good bye." He responded.

We walked out and there she was. Along with Negi, Kotarou, and everyone else who helped us during the final stretch of the festival. After a little bit of chatting everyone up and showing them what I did, it was time for Chao to leave. "Let's do this again next year, this was really fun." I said jokingly. "But next time, not as dangerous." We all agreed and Chao walked up to me. "Hey Jake, can I ask you something?" I noticed she said that a little sadly. "This kryptonite messed with my head. I noticed you were able to absorb it during the fight. When the bald dude came, he had this weird gun that bathed me in it, so I want to ask if you would absorb the leftover kryptonite from my body… if it isn't too much trouble." I couldn't believe what I was hearing. During the fight, she sounded so brash and uninhibited. Now she sounds like a shy schoolgirl, but I did what she asked of me. She extended her arms out, palms outward. "I've never really done this before." I warned her. I put my hands on hers and breathed slowly. After a minute, I took my hands off. "Alright, Chao. That seems just about it. I absorbed all the kryptonite from your body. You're cleaner than Howie Mandel on a bad day." She looked confused by what I said, but thanked me nevertheless and stepped back, summoning a pillar of light behind her. But something felt weird, familiarly weird. "Oh… not again." A mysterious force picked me up and chucked me into the pillar just as it, and Chao, disappeared…

It was a sunny day out on the city of Washington D.C. It hadn't been quite at its top since the recent nuclear war… it was very quiet outside, only the soft whisper of the wind and the roar of the fires scattered everywhere. Cars were flipped over, buildings half torn apart. The air was thick, musky and heavy with radiation. With all the dead bodies around, it looked like everyone was dead. Almost everyone, that is…

I was walking around outside after waking up again a few minutes earlier and finding some clothing, a dark blue zip-up hoodie with the hood up and light blue, faded jeans, and my kryptonite enhanced immune system was giving me an immunity to any radiation poisoning. 'What the hell happened here?' Last I remembered I was pulled into that pillar of light that Chao Lingshen summoned, but why? "Oh god, what's that smell?"

Right away, as soon as the scent of new blood was in the irradiated atmosphere, a figure started to form in the mist. It advanced slowly, soon able to identify. A very pale female stood in front of me, a Chinese Assault Rifle pointed at me. Her face was hidden behind a full gas mask. She wore a leather bra with a spiked right shoulder pad. Leather pants with spiked armor on the sides of her thighs and combat boots.

I noticed the rifle the stranger who appeared before me was holding. In order to keep suspicion from falling on me, I raised my hands slowly to not startle the person. "Uh... h-hi?" I said nervously. Maybe if I struck up a conversation with the stranger, I'd gain her trust and maybe she'd lower her weapon.

Her breathing was heavy from the mask, as she took in and exhaled the purified air. "What's your business down here in the Capital Wastelands?"  
She simply asked; her voice highly changed from the mask.

"Capital Wastelands? I was just in Japan. What the hell happened here?" I exclaimed in surprise. She lowered the large rifle and oddly looked at him behind the mask. She then burst out into short laughter. "What's so funny?" I asked her. "Are you a vault dweller? Wow…" "What the hell's a vault dweller?" I asked her again, the confusion on my face growing ever apparent. At that moment, she slammed the butt of the rifle on what looked like a gigantic cockroach that ran at her feet. "Uh…" "This is what's left of Washington D.C." She responded. "Washington D.C.?" I exclaimed in surprise and confusion. I was just in Japan. How'd I get here?

The confusion on my face grew more, though, when she asked if I was a vault dweller. "Again, what the hell's a vault dweller…? What… what year is this? And… am I going crazy or was that a cockroach?" "Pfft…" A little giggle passed. "Honestly, you lose track of the date. With all the irradiated creatures around, what day it is, really doesn't cross your mind… what's your name, stranger?"

I took the hood off. " Jake. Jake Smith. So… you don't have anything to tell you the date?" He takes out his cell phone to try to see if the satellite would change the date, but it was off and it wouldn't turn on. "Crap. You wouldn't be able to tell me the date anyway, would you?"

"Well, Jake..." The female set the rifle to the strap on her back. She advanced a hand to her mask, pulling it up and taking it off. Emerald hues shimmered from the hazy sun, under dramatic lashes, bordered with a heavy black liner. She had a midnight blue war hock; hoops going all up both ears. 'Holy shit!' "I'm Joan… And, I think it's 2017…"

"**2017?** I thought I was in 2012. What happened to me, and what happened between then and now?" Joan shrugged. "Well… a nuclear war went on here… not quite sure what happened to you…" "**A nuclear war?**"

[To be continued]

Yeah, I know I said the last chapter said "To be concluded" but I decided to include a Facebook RP that one of my friends posted on Jake Smith's new Facebook page.


	20. Sibling Rivalry

Key: "Talking" 'Jake's inner thoughts' "'**Emphasis**'" [Story recap]

Scorpion Warrior

Chapter 20

Sibling Rivalry

[On the last chapter of Scorpion Warrior, Jake finally defeated Chao Lingshen and saved the future… or so he thought. He was flung into the same time-jumping spell that Chao was using to return to her own time. But did beating Chao up solve anything? Or did it make it all worse? Jake was flung into a post-apocalyptic future. The hunt for the answers is on in this new chapter. Who did it? When? Why? And how?]

"**A nuclear war?**" The look on my face said it all. In the 5 years I must've apparently missed, this whole place went straight to hell. The thing is, I have absolutely no recollection of what happened. I started pacing back and forth. "I gotta save this place. Is there a time machine?" Joan raised a brow, giving me an odd look. "What?" "Yeah… we also got us a magic wand that'll make them giant radscorpions shrink..." 'Radscorpions?' The female rolled her eyes. "Nothing's left here in the Wastelands, 'cept a few people and buildings…" "Dammit! Well… I gotta get back. I might be able to save this place. I should be able to. If you can't find one, then can't you build one?" He was desperate to get back to his own time. "I don't belong here. I belong in 2012." I started to get a strange feeling in my gut.

Joan glared, giving me the same odd look. "What?" She then let out a sigh, reaching behind her back and pulled out the rifle, aiming at me. "Whoa, be careful!" When her pale finger pulled on the trigger, it seemed she meant to shoot me, until it slipped right past my head. "Whoa!" On contact, her target behind him let out a screech as it fell. It looked… unidentifiable, whatever it may have been. "Perhaps this isn't the best place to talk… come with me." She pulled down her mask, readying her gun. "I suggest you stay real close if you want to live..." She turned around and started to lead. 'Not until you see what I can do.'

"Heh… believe me, I can take care of myself in even the harshest environments." I said in a pretty cocky tone. "But I guess it would be nice to have a travelling buddy." I took another look at the thing Joan killed, then started jogging after her. "By the way, what was that thing?" "Wow!..." She let out a rather sadistic laugh. "Now what?" I asked while she was laughing. "Vault dweller..." She started addressing him to his new name. "I was once as clueless as you, it's alright..." 'The hell's a vault dweller?' "Clueless?"

She pulled the mask up just enough to expose her pale lips. "Lesson number one in the Capital Wastelands, the Deathclaw back there. Get 'em right in the brain, quickest way to drop em. Now, skinning them for their hide will get you at least sixty five caps. But…! Always take the hands. They'll get you near two hundred caps." She finished, gently swiping her finger along the three dried out, yellow Deathclaw hands that sat on a ring at her belt. Bottle caps? As currency?

"Caps? What happened to dollars?" I was curious cause using bottle caps as currency instead of money really confused me. Where was I? "Also, my name's Jake. Not Vault Dweller." I told her. "You know? Soda and beer caps? The Enclave took away all of our money near around 2013. Some smart ole' bastard started to pass caps off as money. Whenever you get a capped bottle, take the cap. They'll get you many things." She explained to me. "So that's another thing to add to my bucket list of stuff to save if I can get back to my own time." I looked around at the new environment. "Along with… this. But first, tell me more about what happened so I can save this place."

Joan shook her head. "Look, I don't know why you keep rambling on about the past and this… 'time machine' thing, but, there's no saving this place…" As fast as a rabid dog lunged for her, her face was splashed with blood, the lifeless canine dropped. He looked at the dog for a minute before continuing on. "You scare me. You know that, don't you?" He asked, straight out matter-of-factly. "Eh." Joan shrugged.  
"If it bleeds, I'll kill it." She wiped some of the blood spatter from her lips. She muttered. "So, there aren't any parts to make one? Even you gotta admit that this place could be better off. It's 2017, somebody had to have made one." I insisted. "Boy, now you're starting to sound like my dad! 'Oh, change the world, eheh!'  
Lunacy…" She muttered.

"You wouldn't happen to know the laws of time travel, would you?" I asked curiously. "Boy, I am close to slapping you!" She turned her head to the side to look at him. "What can I say?" I said cheekily. "I have a one-track mind." I joked.  
"You should really speak with my father about this. I'm a trigger happy firecracker. I know nothing about that 'past' stuff like he does." I crossed my arms. "You've been holding back. Anyway, by that reaction, would it be safe to assume that you wouldn't want to learn, would you?" He said with a slight hint of sarcasm mixed with genuine… genuinity.

"No. And, I wish daddy would let it go. He's going to get himself killed, the Enclave doesn't like it when people talk about that stuff, especially vault dwellers…" She said soft, as if to herself. "Again with the Enclave and these vault dwellers. Who is this Enclave? And what are these vault dwellers? I might be able to protect him from them-" I told Joan. I was serious. After all, being the Scorpion Warrior is my job. "No." She came back, rather quickly. "This is my battle. Mess with my family, you die… that president better be prepared…"

We stopped at the door of a torn apart library and walked in. There were people in the same type of outfit as her sitting all around the place. Candles lit, guns, ammunition boxes and empty bottles of vodka and whiskey were everywhere. I follow her inside, and, almost immediately, the scent of all that vodka nearly gets to me. "Holy crap… my nose is on fire." After I stopped crying over the loss of my sense of smell and was able to focus, I looked around the building. "This library looks… familiar…" 'When was the last time I've been in Washington DC?

She went to a set of stairs and walked up to open a door at the very top. Inside, a man who looked identical to Joan sat at a desk. Short, black, graying hair. The same emerald hues, glasses and a lab uniform. Sitting beside the desk was a very… disturbingly large black dog with red hues. It was larger than Joan and the man, and stood to Joan's waist. "Holy crap! Is that a dog or an ape?" The "dog" was obviously nice; it didn't attack. Joan gently patted it's head, scratching its pointed ears. "Darling." The man smiled. "Hi, daddy…" "Who do we have here? Jesus, is this another slave?" Joan smiled… rather creepily. "Naw… not this time…" '**This time?**'

When she said "not this time", I got a weird look on his face, but pushed the thought to the back of his mind. Seeing the "dog", who looked more and more like a caveman than an ape, I walked over and kneeled down so our faces were even. "What a cool dog. Mind if I pet it?" There was a near endless pile of bones by the man's desk… looked human, too. Probably the Joan's catches. But, as the dog looked like it would tear my arm off, he pushed his massive head against his hand. "Ripper's a good ole' boy…" "**RIPPER?**" I got a scared look on my face. "Yeah. Got a problem with that?" I shook my head no. "Goody. Anyway, he got hit by the radiation, and didn't seem to get his DNA twisted like the rest..." Joan scooted up on the desk and sat. "Okay, so here's the sitch. Jake, this is my dad James. Daddy," They looked at me; Ripper's breath knocked me out. "This is Jake… he is almost as insane as you…" I regained consciousness, but my arms and legs didn't work. "I heard that. I'm not insane." I was able to get up a few minutes later.

I started scratching Ripper behind the ears while sneering at Joan. I pulled out my wallet and showed my ID. "See? I got this a year before the last day I could remember. This should prove that I'm from the year 2012." I tossed the wallet onto James's desk, which unfolded itself and also showed $20 in a ten and two fives. Joan smiled a little, gently kicking her feet. James looked instantly interested in the wallet. Pushing his glasses more up the bridge of his nose, he held the wallet, studying the I.D. He reached in and pulled out the ten. "I haven't seen a dollar bill since the recent Holocaust. And the I.D. does say 2012. Maybe the Overseer messed with our minds." Joan said sarcastic. "My god… you could be right… maybe… maybe we've all been brainwashed!" He spoke enthusiastic. "I was kidding…"

"I don't know…" I said after Joan spoke. "This holocaust deal sounds serious." 'Overseer?' James gave me back my wallet. "You guys have to tell me all you know about this holocaust that you say happened. There's never been one since the 1940s, and I do not plan on there ever being another one." My face was serious, more so than ever before. "I need to know all that you do about this holocaust, where and when. Also, is there a time machine anywhere? I need to get back to the past. Rule number one, Joan, never tamper with the past, but I can change it for the better somehow.

"Lunacy..." Joan muttered, rolling her eyes. "There was a Holocaust before this one? But… now that I think… it could be 2012. The Overseer of Vault 101 really did mess with us…" James pondered with that thought. "We don't really know much about it. People never talk, people never tell." Joan spoke. "It's the don't ask, don't tell policy of the army. I guess everybody else decided to adopt that." I explained how history screwed the world up. "If I go back in time, I might, no… I should be able to stop World War 3 from ever happening to the country. So if you have a time machine, please let me use it to go to the time before all this starts happening so I can stop it. I have… or I guess I had a girlfriend in 2012. Please, if you don't have a time machine, I might be able to help you build one. Forget everything this… this Overseer person told you about because it's a bunch of bologna. If I can't stop it from happening completely, I may be able to prolong it from happening for another… 30 or 50 years. I also might be able to teach you the rules of time travel along the way."

This time, it was James's turn to give me the same odd look that Joan did before. "That's starting to get a little old." Awkward silence was broken as the massive dog started to loudly gnaw on what looked like a human leg, locked in it's death paws, snorting and grunting. "Dear, god..." "Lunacy?" Joan finished his sentence. "Well… not… y-yes… lunacy. But, correct." "So I'm NOT crazy!" I said as a joke. "Jesus!" Joan threw her arms up. "If there is a 'time machine', it'd be at the museum of technology. And, sweetheart, I'd like you to take him there." "D-daddy! Why?" "You're the only other one here who stands a chance out there." "What about the Brotherhood of Steel? They're always guarding…!" "You're the only one who knows where the museum is…" Joan sighed. James knew that was defeat. "Thank you. Take Ripper, and be careful…" "Yes, daddy... Come on, boy." She patted the dog, it picking up the leg and trotting after her.

I smirked, looking like I was just relishing in the victory that he gave himself. "Believe me, she'll be safe with me." Then he had another idea. "Hey James, do you know anybody else who could work that time machine? If its in a museum, then it must be… I dunno, it must be not working. If Joan said I was as insane as you are about time travel, you must know how to work it. You should come with us." Jake thought that James was probably cooped up in here for… who knows how long, so he might enjoy a bit of fresh air… so to speak. "No!" Joan instantly protested, as James stood. 'Whoa!' "I lost your ass once, I'm not going to have to lose you again." "Joan… sweetie, we'll talk later…" "Oh, so the man who left is going to preach to me?" After a few seconds, there was that sigh again. 'Uh…' James smiled. "That's my girl…" Joan lead, the beast right by her side. There was the odd look, as Joan lead them out into the Wastelands. "By the way, you wouldn't happen to know about the Justice League, would you?" "The… Justice League…?" Joan repeated, as if confused by the name.

After a while of walking, I got a little bored. "Watch this." I got Ripper on my back. Joan looked at me with great shock as I lifted the dog. "H-he friggin weighs almost a ton! How did you-" Joan was cut off, gasping as I picked her up. "Now you just gotta point me in the right direction." I told them. "E-eh…! O-over there! Near the center of the mall." She pointed to a mildly torn building that had a torn sign in front, "Technology" being the only portion left. "What the hell…?"

I landed in the center of the mall, lightly setting James and Joan on their feet then took Ripper off my back before landing. "So you haven't heard of the Justice League…? Well… I just so happen to be a superhero who's part of the team called the Scorpion Warrior. That's why I was so set for getting to the past. As for how I can lift a one ton beast as easily as I can pick up a feather, super strength is another one of my abilities. Along with flight." I explained to them.

"Super… heroes?" Joan questioned curiously. "Yeah." I responded quickly. "Dear, god! This is amazing!" James said, excited. "Tell me about it." I responded again. "It's like… it's like you're irradiated like these creatures, but without the negative effects!" "Irradiated? Well… I guess…" "Step back, guys… he's going to have a stroke…" Joan spoke sarcasticly, getting her rifle, to have it out and ready. "Ripper…" She stopped, turning her head to me. "You wanna see why we all call him Ripper? Watch, this is cool." Joan turned back to the beast, it standing as a mutant burst through the doors. "Ripper, attack." She commanded simply. The dog stood, raising it's head and let out a deep, blood curdling howl. I had to cover my ears cause it was loud. It took off in a dash, crushing paw prints in the cement of the walk. It was a matter of seconds between the dog jumping, and the mutant falling to the ground with its leg in the dog's jowls. I just stood there, watching in amazement at the scene that unfolded before me. "Good boy!" Joan gushed, patting her knee.

"I'm ready to go home now." James didn't even say anything, just pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head. "Jesus… what happened to my baby girl…? You used to be so innocent, and draw bunnies… now… now, you decapitate their heads..." Joan was already starting in. I looked at James with a freaked out look on my face. "She used to draw bunnies?" "I think I saw one of them time things the last time I was here! Come on!" Joan called to us.

While we were walking, I started to think. I thought about the accident that gave me my powers back that time. "Oh no… I think I figured out how this place went to hell... I just need more evidence though." James paid no attention to my thought, not even sure what was going on still, himself. Joan's gun fired, and snarls were heard, a sign the place was still alive. "Uh oh." James and I entered, making sure to step over the dead mutants on the ground and trying not to step in the puddles of blood. "Good heavens, what is that?" James pointed to a mass on the ground. "Try was. Is that haggis?" I said. Joan pressed a button on a strange device on her left wrist, that gave off a bright light to see. She knelt down, angling her wrist to it. "Oh. It's one of the mutants bags." It was a medium sized fish net bag, sitting in a pool of blood. Then, it was clear that it was the bag that was dripping with blood, whatever was in there. She set her gun down and advanced her hand to it. James smacked her hand away. "Jesus, don't put your hand in there!" As usual, Joan didn't listen. She pulled the bag open, the smell strong enough to gag James and make him get up and step back. She reached her hand in, repulsive noises sounded. The scent made me pass out.

Joan rolled her eyes, still rummaging, finally pulling something out. "Organ…" That was thrown aside. She kept digging until… "Keys." She pulled her arm out, blood up to her elbow. She adjusted her gun on her back, and clipped the keys on the ring with the Deathclaw hands at her waist. "Oh… Jake. My dear, you've much to learn…" She pulled out a syringe from her pocket, knelt beside me and got to my neck. She pierced my vein with the needle, and stood back up. A few minutes later, I woke up. Although a bit slowly.

"Oh… wow… give a guy a warning next time you open a bag of haggis. What'd you use to wake me up anyway?" I felt a little pain on my neck. "What the…?" James took the syringe from her hand and read the base of it. "I'm going to pretend this is adrenaline..." "'Kay... Ts'not, though." "What did you do?" I asked hurriedly. James groaned, throwing it down as he proceeded into the Vault exhibit. "It's just some Psycho… it'll make you… better. I use it all the time…" She whispered with a grin, helping me up, and heading along. cringed at the word Psycho. 'That… doesn't sound good.' "Uh… Joan… please tell me what that is. And was that a syringe? I… my skin should be impenetrable. Near indestructible." He was thinking long and hard about that, not even paying attention to his path.

Around the corner was something that looked like… a giant mutated grizzly bear? James gasped, jumping back as he looked at the mutated bear rummage through a trash can. "Joan, kill it." I stopped after I heard James, then I looked at it… and almost wet myself. "So… I'm **definitely** ready to go back home now." "No, Yao Guai can be nice… come here!" Joan said soft and soothing. It looked up from the garbage and at Joan. It snarled, and started for her. With blood spatter all over face, the animal lay motionless on the ground. "Eh… That was a bad one… anywho, I think the time thing is nearby…" She put the gun to her chest, and continued on. I looked to James. "**She** used to draw bunnies?" James crossed his arms, pinching the bridge of his nose. "This is what the Wastelands do to people. Turns them into savage Raiders…" "As I recall, this savage Raider saved your ass, grandpa…" "I am only fifty two!" The next room was 'Inventions'.

As Joan was searching for the time machine, I was explaining the different rules of time travel. For one of the rules, I used my accident as an example of what you should not do, which ironically coincided with another rule. "I would hope, I never see my past self." She replied, sarcasticly shuddering. "Seems simple, though…" ' At least sarcasm hasn't died yet.' "Ahah!" James called. Joan and I headed in to where he was standing. "This… this is a… time machine…?" Joan asked. It looked like the DeLorean used in Back to the Future. "Mhm… If I can get it working…" Joan peered behind the machine. "Oh. Oh… okay, it's just a few wires." "You know how to set this up?" I asked her quizzically. "Yeah. Just like connecting a bomb…" She knelt down and started arranging the wires. "A bomb…?"

A little 'click' sounded as the last wire was connected. The lights to the machine turned on. "There… good as… well, not new… or good. But, there."  
Joan stood and stepped back. "Hmm… it looks like the circuitry is only stable enough for one more trip, give or take. We better make this count. Current date is 2017. Destination date Joan?" I looked to Joan for the destination date. Joan whistled.  
Ripper strolled in, with a mutant's leg in its mouth. "You gotta go home, okay? Will you go home?" The dog nodded in simple understanding. Joan had to stand on her toes to reach its neck, wrapping her arms around it and kissing the side of its bloody face. "Okay." She spoke with a smile as she let go and over to the others.

I turned to James. "You wanna come with us?" James thought for a minute.  
"I suppose." "Here, then." To James' surprise, a submachine gun was thrown in his hands. "Violence? Really?" "Just get in." Joan replied. I looked at her. "You have issues," Then to James. "We don't need guns." He dropped the gun while Joan got in the back seat, then James in the front; I took driver. "I can drop off Ripper before the jump." "Eh… are you sure? He… he's a little… weighty…" I thought for a bit. " I could fly him over myself." "I suppose he'll be fine… go home, boy." The dog nodded, standing and ran off. "Okay… let's get moving."

I drove the car out of the museum and asked Joan, once again, for the date. Joan looked at James. "Joan was just a baby… around 1997." I stopped the car and looked at James and Joan. "Seriously? The country wasn't like this in 2008. So come on, what's the date?" I asked again. " Well… that's what the Overseer told us… could have been otherwise…" Joan spoke. " This overseer person again… you will be glad once this world is over with." I said to her as I started driving again. "Yeah, whatever." She said despondently. "What's wrong?" "What'll happen to Ripper?" "He might disappear…" The thought of losing her best friend hurt so much, but it was clear she was trying to stay strong. "I'm sorry Joan, but… if this changes, Ripper will disappear. Now, what was the date that the world went to hell?" I asked. Joan hesitated. "Joan, please. I need to know the date." She pushed some buttons on the thing on her wrist. "January 3, 2013."

I put the date for December of 2012, then hit 88. A little bit later, we were in Washington D.C. The Washington D.C. as it was meant to be. "It is great to be back." She looked around at the different area. It had been the first time she ever saw it so alive, so bustling. James, however had seen it before destruction. "Jesus… it's been so long." "Pfft... I don't like it." "Hey, my stomach doesn't hurt anymore." I guess all that radiation was making my Kryptonite augmented immune system work overtime, and now that I'm back in good ole 2012, I can finally relax. I stepped out of the car, and Joan unfolded her arms and followed. Despite her tough exterior, she still made sure to help her father. Extending her hand out, he took it and stepped out. Just shows how protective she could get over something. "Hey..." Joan directed to me. "Even the past… won't we look like jackasses dressed like this?" She asked, tugging a little at her mesh chain bra. "Yes." I said without missing a beat.

Conveniently, we just happened to stop in front of a major clothes store. "Alright, I have enough in my savings for a few sets of clothing." Joan pulled out about four 100 dollar bills. "Um… okay, I guess you guys are all set. That just leaves me." "What about you?" Joan asked. "I blend, I don't need new clothes. You stick out worse than a sore thumb," I said to Joan. "I need materials for a new costume for my other identity. One of those mutant bears ripped my other one up." We went in and James and Joan went right to shopping. I, however, had to, once again, shop for some more materials for the new costume. I stuck to the original color scheme, but decided to mix it up by turning the highlights of the costume and the "S" on the chest both red-orange. 'Should I make the mouth different…?' I gathered all the materials I needed for about 10 different costumes. The price was outrageous, I spent about three-quarters of my savings. 'Good thing James and Joan are paying for themselves…' Speaking of who, I met up with them outside the store.

"If I didn't know you earlier, I would've said you two weren't related. At all. One bit." Joan was wearing a tight fit black t-shirt with a skull on the front, a spiked belt in the loops of the jeans with tears in the knees, and a simple pair of black and white converse. James had a white button up shirt, black dress pants and brown dress shoes. "Okay, I lost my superhero costume to one of those mutant bears, so I bought enough new material for about 10 new costumes. Anyway, I set the date about a week before you said the country goes to hell, Joan. Time to prepare." I said.

"How do you think you're going to prepare for a bomb?" She asked, curious. "Well, I can fly, so I should be able to reach it. I can lift Ripper so I might be able to redirect the bomb somewhere else. Or, if the warhead is using what I think it's using, I might be able to absorb the bomb THEN I might be able to redirect it to space. Where it'll just harmlessly explode and not cause any damage to the rest of America." I said the last part a little childishly. "So it's pretty much how a bomb squad member prepares to disarm a bomb. Cept this one's gonna be a… a nuclear warhead which if I fail to disarm it, midair, then make it go back into space, all of DC, possibly the whole country, will go to hell. No big deal." I added with feigned confidence in his voice.

Joan looked at me. "I know how to disarm just about any explosive. But… this sounds more like you. Now, you seem to have never heard of the Enclave. During the advance of the bomb… you'll find out. The bombs wave only destroyed the city, not the people..." "But the resulting radiation mutated them, right? Then they went mad in the world of 2017 and killed each other? Trust me, Superman's dealt with what his friend called meteor freaks." "The Enclave killed everyone in sight. The people who hid, where irradiated and turned into Ghouls… Ghouls who couldn't handle it, turned feral and killed off the remaining survivors. What you saw was the aftermath." She looked to the side.

I looked back at her. "Wow… now I definitely have to stop the bomb now." "Yeah…" Joan said soft, gently fiddling with the barbell through her left cartilage. "What?" "Mostly, a few Wastelanders survived as Ghouls. We stayed in the Vault, but ended up getting locked up, and had our heads filled with… shit…" I laughed a little at that statement, then decided to change the subject. "Do you like dressing in grunge?" She looked at me oddly at the sudden subject change.  
"Yes… I enjoy it very much. Why?" "Another rule of time travel, you don't completely disappear, but your personality changes completely due to the event horizon completely changing, altering your memories and choices, leading to an entirely new person… so to speak." I explained.

"Really?" James looked up from reading a newspaper. He sounded rather happy. "I mean… it wasn't any better… but, you'll grow your hair out again." "Pfft." Joan rolled her eyes. "Yeah. Honestly, the purple Mohawk, the shredded pants, and the overall grunge look… just kinda scares me a little." "What's wrong with my hair?" She self-consciously ran a hand back through her short, midnight locks. "You look insane, sweetie." "Oh, you're a doctor, not a therapist…" Joan crossed her arms.

"I still can't figure that one out…" James thought aloud. "Wanna share that thought with the rest of the class there, James?" I asked him as I put my new costumes' materials in the car. I can't believe I forgot about them. "You had an accident with radiation, correct?" James asked me. "Indeed I did." "And you developed superpowers, correct?" "Ah… yes." I explained what my dad told me after defeating Grodd.

"You can absorb radiation?" He asked me a moment after I finished the story. "Indeed. Why?" "Back in the Wastelands, I fell into a lake of radiation. One of the more friendlier Ghouls helped me out. Surprisingly, nothing happened." Joan interjected. "You fell into the radiation? And there are no weird effects? I thought I was the only one not affected by the radiation."

"Nope." "It may sound odd, but… I think she has a large amount of radiation in her system. So much so that I think she became used to it." James spoke. "That's impossible… humans can't handle much radiation… has this happened before?" I asked curiously seeing as how no one, not even myself, who got hit with radiation, should even be alive. "I have special cells in my body that absorbs radiation, at least that's what the Martian Manhunter, and my dad, told me one time."

"I noticed that when her skin got awfully pale, and… shiny. She's always around radiation, and she's always in the sun. That shouldn't be happening. Two and two, together…" Joan flipped her hands around, looking up her arms. For a person who's always outside, she was extremely pale, almost unhealthy looking.  
"It is possible to become immune, but I've only seen it once…"

"Well, my dad told me that my mom passed on some cells to me that actually absorb radiation, including the Kryptonite that gave me these powers." "Hmm…" Joan brought her head down a little. "Still can't believe you're… a superhero…" She smiled a little. I cocked my head a little at that statement in confusion.

"Hmm…" Joan smiled a little. "Now, I ain't super, but nothing stops me." She gave a cocky tone, grinning as she cracked her knuckles. "Nothin'…" James rolled his eyes, knowing his daughters body language very well. "If you touch anything, I'll slap you…" "Relax. Just preparing… just in case." "You better not be planning on throwing a punch at me." I said with a mix of concern and seriousness.

I saw James toss the newspaper he was reading earlier. "What's that?" I caught a couple interesting headlines: "_Justice League…_" I picked it up to see what the rest of the headline said. "_**Dead?**_ _The world famous protectors of the earth, Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and all the other members of the Justice League have been killed. Scorpion Warrior missing, presumed dead_. Flash… Green Arrow…" I sat down on the hood of the car with a huge thud in shock. "Even… even Power Girl…?" I felt a tear roll down my cheek.

"Something wrong Jake? Does this Power Girl mean anything to you?" He asked me curiously. "Yeah… she's my… she's Scorpio's girlfriend… wait…" I reread the byline. "Scorpion Warrior? Missing?" The byline changed from Scorpion Warrior to Scorpio. "What the hell? Did… my superhero name just change from Scorpion Warrior to Scorpio?" I asked in wonder. "No, it's always been Scorpio from what I read in the paper." James said. "No… it hasn't. It's always been Scorpion Warrior. Though I have been thinking of changing it for a while." "What're you babbling about?" Joan asked. "Oh yeah. The event horizon. Your memories have been changed." I completely forgot that the future changes based on minor changes that happen in the past, or in this case, the present. Me saying Scorpio's girlfriend instead of Scorpion Warrior changed the paper's byline, and subsequently James and Joan's memories.

"Hang on just one second… Superman? Power Girl? Even Supergirl? Dead? They're supposed to be able to survive anything… except when in the presence of Kryptonite…" Another part of the story caught my eye. It mentioned Lex Luthor, so I turned the page. "_Lex Luthor funds project to build nuclear fallout shelters_?" After putting two and two together, I had an epiphany. "Figure something out, Jake-y?" Asked Joan with a look on her face that said she thought I was going crazy without an explanation. "Yeah…" I started.

"It all makes sense now. That accident I had when I was 18… that lab was weaponizing Kryptonite. "Lex Luthor closes down lab after high school student falls in the kryptonite radiation shield"? That lab belonged to Lex. He must've known what I could do even before I knew. Chao! He must've hired her to reveal my identity using the knowledge that cop had about me and using the Kryptonite augmented magic. That way, all my enemies and all the criminals I've helped put away would come after me, preventing me from stopping Lex. Then, when that failed, she pulled me into her time stream, forcing me 5 years into the future. He must've known that I could stop the bomb. Then he took charge of the construction of those vaults you said you escaped from." I slammed the paper onto the hood of the car. "Soon as he knew it would be a success, he got rich. He embezzled the money to do something which…" I took the paper again and reread the stories about the deaths of the non-Kryptonian heroes of the Justice League. "That! It all makes sense now!"

Joan had a confused look on her face as she listened. "Whoa… how many more of there are you guys?" She questioned. "An entire team of superheroes." I responded without even looking away from the newspaper. Page after page, the whole frikkin paper was chock-full of "Justice League Dead" stories and "Scorpio Gone Missing" headlines. "And… you're saying… this Lex Luthor guy prepared for the nuclear apocalypse or something?" "Looks that way to me." I slammed my fists on the hood and accidentally dented it. "**Dammit!**" I took a deep breath and calmed down. "This can't be happening…"

Both were still highly confused on the super human thing. James was a scientist, and still didn't understand. "Well… no matter the outcome, there will still be many more battles that nobody knows about, leading to another nuclear apocalypse. But, we'd still have it under control. Us, the Wastehounds, the Alchemists downtown, and the Brotherhood of Steel knights down in the city keep the animal population at level. More and more people come along and rebuild… and, my old man's the reason for all the clean water… so, we'll be fine anyways, should you fail."

"But I won't be fine if I fail. This newspaper's taught me more of the future than I wanted to know." My normally laid back face has gotten serious. "But, it's become a way of life!" The expression on Joan's face showed just how much she actually did love the Wastelands. "I'm gonna miss it so much… everything I've worked for… the time I died, and the Alchemists brought me back…" Joan crossed her arms and let out a sigh. James looked away, clearly not liking that subject. "Just years down the drain…" I finally looked away from the paper. "I'm sorry, you two. But that's just how it's gonna have to be." I sat down on the hood. "James, maybe once this is over, maybe I can get you a job working at Star Labs." I looked to Joan. "As for you… I'm not sure. But I can't let this future come to pass. Come on, it's getting dark. I know a place downtown that takes drifters." I told them while getting in the driver's seat. They followed suit, I drove us to the motel, and we got into our rooms.

A couple days later, after I went to the watchtower to warn the rest of the Justice League of the oncoming missile in January and get a new comm link, I tried on the new, modified Scorpion Warrior suits. Barry Allen, The Flash, came with me. Again. "So this is your new lair eh?" He asked me once we got to the entrance. "Yep." I haven't seen Joan all morning. James told me she had some business to take care of, and me and Barry just hung out in my room. "Dude, what happened to you?" He asked me, referring to the incident in Japan. "I… still have no idea," I replied. "A power similar to the one used to manhandle me during the Trigon incident lifted me up and flung me into Chao's time stream. I ended up 5 years into a post-apocalyptic future." "What happened?" "I lost my costume to this… mutant bear thing." "Then…?" "I did what I do. I fought him, he ran off. He made off with half my costume. A moment later, I found my clothes. The exact clothes I wore before that big robot strip beamed me in Japan. It had my wallet and everything." "So what's the big ending to this tale?" The big ending is that the Justice League dies… 'I can't say that…' "I got some more materials for some new costumes…" I said hesitantly.

"Really? That was a lame ending," Said Barry. "But, now I'm interested in these new costumes. Model them!" I pulled out the costumes one by one. "Ten costumes? Wow." The last one was different. The mask was blank on the front like the last one, but the mouth area was more squared out, rather than triangled over my mouth, and the scalp was exposed. "Wouldn't anybody recognize you?" He asked me about the mask. "That's the beauty of it. I'll have my hair all wispy in the front. As Scorpio, I'll have it spiked-" "Scorpio? I thought it was Scorpion Warrior." He interrupted. "I figured that Scorpion Warrior was a bit too much, so I'm changing it to Scorpio. Didn't Clark have a different hero identity before becoming… you-know-who?" I said in a whisper so James wouldn't hear me next door. "Three, in fact." "There you go. Anyway, back to the costume. I changed the side colors from pure red to red-orange. I still have the arm bands around the biceps, but I changed the markings over the ribs to a big…" I motioned my hands down my sides cause I didn't really know how else to explain it.

"Well…" I took my clothes off to reveal the costume, and grabbed the mask and put it on. "What do you think?" I asked him with a big grin. He scoped my costume and was about to give his opinion, until a familiar voice took it from him. "Lookin good, Jake-y." It was Joan who came back a lot later than I thought she would. "Where've you been?" "What do you care? You aren't my dad. Who's your friend?" "Barry, Joan. Joan, Barry. Barry, I met Joan and her pop in the future." I looked to Joan. "Barry here's an ex-cop." "Not bad Barry. Anyway, my business is my business, so butt out." Then she walked to her room. "She seems nice." Barry said after a moment. He noticed I had a weird face. "What's up Buttercup?" "Something about her story seems… weirdly familiar." "What's her story?" "Same as mine involving radiation…" I got dressed in my street clothes and walked over to their room.

"Something's been bugging me." I said to her. "Yeah, me too. How could you not like the Wastelands? It's full of danger, fun, adventure… freedom. What's it here? Dull, boring, constricting… everything the exact opposite. And I won't remember a thing." Joan almost started to shed a tear. "But, whatever helps you sleep at night." She crossed her arms. "We've gone over this, Joan, I have to save the future." I told her. "Why? So your Justice League buddies can live to continue playing superheroes?"

I started to feel remorseful for her and James's situation. "I know it's hard to think about, but it's for the best. Nobody should live like that. None of the water tasted right and the food was… just… blech." He thought about it. "Sure would've helped if magic WAS revealed to the world. No, that's not a world to live in. All that radiation isn't good, you know." Barry whispered something into my ear. "I know, I don't mean that, you know. I'll explain later."

"My dad and the downtown alchemists invented a pill that improved a person's immunity to the radiation. But all that's gonna go down the drain. Maybe it's best that your superhero buddies didn't survive." Barry slapped my shoulder and I gave him a face that said not to react yet. "Really now Joan? Are you radiation free?" "Well, no. I'm pretty much flowing with it, but I've built a pretty strong tolerance to it. Before the pill, I could drink the water and be fine. Tasted awful sure, and still kind of does… but, it's clean now anyway. Strain and boil it, and get the remaining dirt out…" Joan mumbled.

"That takes us to what I wanted to talk to you about. My mother passed rad absorbing cells to me. What's your excuse?" I asked her. "We can't figure it out…" James started. "We all wanted to know, but I couldn't poke and prod her with needles, not anymore…" Joan rubbed her arms, little pin pricks now visible as James mentioned it. "We think it's the same case with a snake's venom. As one slowly ingests a little every day, a tolerance was just slowly built. And as the ingestion continues, the tolerance will only strengthen, until the substance won't even affect the body or its system anymore." He finished explaining.

"That's impossible though. The slightest amount could put a person in the hospital. But it sounded like you were for a while." I had a thought. "What's… what's your mother's name?" I asked her. "What's that hafta do with anything?" Barry asked. Joan instantly smiled. "Mommy…" Her smile then quickly faded. Barry slapped my shoulder again. "That's why you don't ask about personal lives without a warrant." He scolded. "Her name was Lana… Lana Lang. My god, was she beautiful…" James said without a second thought. "We don't know what happened to her… She left one day, never came back…" Joan finished.

Barry slapped my shoulder again. "Okay, that's getting annoying… wait…" "Dude, are you thinking what I'm thinking?" I looked back to James and Joan. "Yeah… my mother's name was Lana. Joan hesitantly, and sheepishly laughed. "It's… it's a silly coincidence…" Joan looked at James, then back at Jake. "No, my mom's not dead, and you certainly ain't my half-kin." Joan spoke in disbelief. "Right, daddy…?" She tugged on his shirt like a little child would. She started to get worried when he gave her a look of sympathy, and didn't reply. "Daddy…? Right…?" "Er… Joan… sweetie… When your mother just walked out that day…" He didn't need to finish, Joan clearly understood. "She… didn't disappear, did she?"

"My mom never said…" I said slowly. "Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!" Said Barry with a laugh. Now it was my turn to slap his shoulder. "What else haven't you told me? Jesus Christ!" For once, it was Joan to grip the bridge of her nose. "I go into the ground for god knows how long, with no mother, I come out to hell and know she's dead. Perfect!" Joan covered her eyes with her hand, arms crossed. "Eh… Joan, I knew this is exactly how you'd be, that's why I never told you. And, now you see why I just had to complete Project Purity, even before the Wasteland. It meant so much to your mother, but now it's finished. And, she'd be so proud of you…"

"Yeah… I'm not the one who came up with the idea." "Yeah... But, you're the one who went after me. Risked your life for a stupid man. Be there for me when physical strength was needed against the Super Mutants… Get the G.E.C.K., just to be captured by the Enclave, and break out…" Only then, did Joan realized what a big part she was. "Yeah, yeah…" She, as herself again, replied miserably.

Some time later, after we were all calmed down, Barry and I decided to go for a walk. It was eerily quiet and awkward between us. "So the costume wasn't the big reveal eh?" He said. His voice was rather serious for someone who's never serious. "The Justice League dies? I die? Were you planning on telling the rest of the League that?" The tone in his voice… "When did you figure it out?" "When she said 'So your Justice League buddies can live to continue playing superheroes?', and daddy's newspaper sorta tipped me off. Like you said, I was an ex-cop, so all I had to do was the math. Why didn't you say that?" I took a deep breath. I didn't know what to say. "I couldn't tell you… you aren't supposed to know your own future." I looked him straight in the eyes. "But trust me when I say this, Barry, but I do not plan on failing the future of the country and the League." This went on for a couple more minutes.

"Alright. I believe you. Sorry for, y'know, going all Batman on you." "Oh please, Batman would kick me out of the League for sure. Superman would probably react the way you are right now." "And kudos for keeping The Flash a secret from Joan," I'm glad he didn't dump me as a friend. "Do you know how the League dies, Jake?" He asked me. "No… but I suspect Lex."

[The morning]

Joan was leaving hers and James's room. "Where are you going?" James asked. "I gotta go see a guy. I'll be back later." She responded, then left the room. "Whoa, where's the fire?" I asked her. "I'll be back later, Jake-y." She walked all the way to the White House to meet up with the President of the United States. "Are you sure this room is completely soundproofed?" She asked him. "This is the Oval Office. Absolutely nobody outside this room can hear us. Not even Superman." "Good. He's back. Scorpio is back." The President turned around in his chair. "Great. I'm gonna have to move ahead with the plan earlier than imagined. Thank you Joan." President Lex Luthor then dismissed Joan.

[Back to Jake and Barry]

"No… but I suspect Lex. Listen, you cannot let slip that the League dies. You weren't supposed to know yourself." A few days later, the alarm beacon on mine and Barry's comm links, waking us with a jolt. "What's the problem Bats? I was having a good…" "**Forget that!** The Watchtower picked up something. **Big**. I'm warping you and Flash up to the Watchtower now." As if on cue, we were both transported the monitor womb. "Jake, suit up. Now. Scorpion Warrior is needed." "Scorpio." I interjected. "What?" "Never mind, I'll tell you later. I can't really get ready, I left my costume back on Earth, Bats." "Go down after the briefing. Right now, the monitor womb picked up something, big." "It's a missile," Superman interjected. "And… I can't stop it." "Why not? Can't you Kryptonians stop anything? It's kryptonite!" I called out. "Oh no! Batman, ETA!" "Almost 2 and a half hours." "**WHAT?**" I stood up with a jolt. "There's something you aren't telling us." He said. "Oh no… it's not supposed to happen now!" "Jake, what are you not telling us?" "I'll explain it all later!"

I warped back down to the motel in DC to get dressed in my new costume, but I couldn't find it anywhere. "NO! Where is it? WHERE IS IT?" Joan came around the corner. "Lookin for somethin… 'bro'?" "Joan! Have you seen my costume? I need it right now!" "Oh… I seem to have misplaced it." She jumped up, grabbed the top of my door frame, and did a sort of a kangaroo kick to the face. That threw me. Far! I skidded about 50 feet while crashing into a bunch of cars. "Son of a bitch!" That gathered a crowd. "Crap! Everybody, get out of here, now!" I saw Joan fly over carrying a car with her. "NOW!" I repeated to the crowd. They all ran and I flew back to the motel; everybody was too frantic to pay attention. I got my costume and the new mask on just seconds before Joan shoulder charged me and into the wall.

"**Joan what the hell are you doing?**" "Shut up!" One right hook to the jaw later, she pulled me from the wall, and shoved us both up through the roof. "I don't have time for this! I have a missile to stop!" I told her. "No you don't!" She interjected. "When I figured out I have the same powers as you, I took it as a chance to save the future!" She replied. "That's what YOU should be helping ME with!" "**Shut up!** I'm saving my future!" "Those wastelands? That overseer's brainwashed you!" "Oh… nu-uh," I saw a very sadistic look on her face. I haven't seen one like that since Father Cornello. "I'm saving my home. **How would you like it if I came here and started destroying it?**" "You're doing that NOW Joan! THIS place could be your home!"

"But you're destroying MY home Jake-y!" I looked up and saw a flash in the sky. "**CRAP!**" I looked back to Joan. "Sorry Joan, but I gotta do this!" I flew at her as fast I could. Arm extended, I connected it with her gut. I spun around then flung her down as hard as I possibly could, sending her crashing through the roof of the motel. I then landed and tried absorbing the radiation from her, but I couldn't sense anything. "**Oh no!**" She woke up. "Oh yeah!" Then kicked me back up through the roof. I flew far to gather distance from her. "Bats! ETA NOW!" I told him. "An hour and a half. Where are you?" I saw Joan rise. "LITTLE BUSY!" We both flew towards each other connecting fists, which sent a HUGE shockwave destroying the windows of all the buildings in a 10 mile radius.

I flew far from her again to gain some distance. "Bats! Send Superman down! I have a plan!" I was nearly exhausted, but it looked as if Joan had plenty of steam. "You seem tired Jake-y." She socked me in the face sending me crashing to the ground. My face was all bloody, you could hardly recognize me. Superman came super speeding in and crashed into her, burying each other about 20 feet into the ground. "Sorry Superman!" I called to him, then warped up to the tower. "That better have been worth it. Judging by what she did, she may be able to kill him." Batman scolded. "Save the country now, I'll explain everything after. Now for my plan." I said between breaths.

This was it. I asked Batman if he had a ship with a reverse polarized magnetic field. He did, and we got to work. There was about an hour left before the end of the world. 'Damn those Mayans and their predictions.' I caught up to the krypto-nuke with Batman in one of his ships. "You better be right about this, or you're off the team." I heard him say over the comm. "We all will if I fail. I don't plan on it!" I replied. "He said so himself." I heard Barry say.

[15 minutes before]

"This is my plan: I won't be able to make that thing budge at the velocity it's heading, so you magnetize the warhead to one of your ships. I have the ability to absorb Kryptonite radiation starting from the accident that gave me these powers. Once I make it safe enough, you come in…" "And make him look bad." Barry interrupted. "Once I make it safe enough, you come in, grab the warhead with your ship, and we both angle it away from the ground." I explained after holding my hand over Barry's mouth. "Why not have Superman help after you absorb it?" He asked. "Back in Japan, I absorbed the Kryptonite radiation surrounding Chao's blimp. But I had to expel it to keep her from blowing me up. I'm not sure what'll happen to Clark if he's near me before I expel it. Better him be safe than us be sorry about hurting him."

[Back to now]

I latched onto the nuke and took deep breaths. "I've never absorbed this much at once!" I actually started to get sick. But it compensated by healing the wounds on my face. I got it all absorbed and Batman came in the ship. "Now!" He pulled while I pushed. We successfully angled it up, but Joan came flying up and crashed into me. "**Dammit!** Not now Joan!" She looked at the nuke. "Bats! Eject now!" "It's not high enough yet." I started sweating. "**Eject! Now!**" I saw the cab fly away from the rest of the ship, so I caught up to it, having yet another plan. I got between the ship and the nuke. 'Come on Joan… take the bait!' Just as I thought. She bum rushed me and the strong magnetic field that the ship was giving off instantly pulled the ship back to the missile, crushing her between them. I heard her give off a blood curdling scream.

While pulling up using the body of the ship, I flew back under the body, and pushed it. I started to feel the effect of holding the kryptonite in my body for so long. As soon as I thought the nuke was safely in the Earth's atmosphere, 'Sorry Joan…' I expelled the kryptonite from my hands in the same fashion I used against Chao, safely detonating the nuke. Battered, bruised, and exhausted beyond belief, I passed out and fell back down to Earth.

[To be continued]


	21. Big Man on Cadmus

Key: "Talking" 'Jake's inner thoughts/ON SCREEN' [Story recap]

Scorpion Warrior

Chapter 21

Big Man on Cadmus

[On the last chapter of Scorpion Warrior, Jake Smith, with his new handle of Scorpio, has just saved the future from President Lex Luthor's missile. But his last attack drained him and sent him plummeting to the earth. Is he dead? We'll see.]

I cratered the earth when I landed. It wasn't too big, really. Not as big as the craters on the moon. It's more like a small crater. Superman came to pick me up, but the second he came near me, he fell. Hard. Here comes El Presidenté himself, Lex Luthor. "Well hello Man of Steel. Nice to see you again." He said to him condescendingly. "Lex…?" "No, no. Don't get up. I wouldn't want you to strain yourself." He dropped a large chunk of kryptonite next to him. I was barely able to open my eyes and mutter the words "I'm sorry" before I passed out again. Lex picked me up and brought me into his limo.

A couple hours later, I regained consciousness, but I couldn't open my eyes. I couldn't talk either. 'What's going on?' I felt a familiar liquid surround me, but I couldn't tell what it was. "It's simple," I heard a familiar voice say. "If he tries to escape, blast him with kryptonite," It was Lex. "He can't absorb too much kryptonite or else he loses control of it." 'Who's he talking to?' "But sir, wouldn't that kill him?" Said another voice. 'Who's that?' "Why are we keeping him in that healing tank if I wanted him dead?" 'Oh so that's why I recognize this liquid.' "No," Lex continued. "I need him for a project I'm working on. Three years ago, he had an accident in another of my 33.1 labs," 'Another 33.1 lab?' "He gained Superman's powers, but none of his weaknesses." "Him being able to utilize the kryptonite as a power and not a hindrance?" "Yes… I want you to extract the part of his DNA that gives him that ability." 'Oh so that's how I gained these powers. Why didn't you say so Dad?'

"Okay, we're alone now." The unfamiliar voice said. 'IS HE TALKING TO ME?' "That's correct." 'WHOA! DID HE JUST READ MY MIND?' "No, I'm not a mind reader." 'ARE… ARE YOU ACTUALLY TALKING TO ME?' "That's correct." 'HOW? AND WHY CAN'T I TALK?' "You were gravely injured during your last adventure. Mr. Luthor brought you in here to heal you. You can't move just yet. As for how I know what you're saying, there's a special monitor up here that's monitoring your brain waves. It's also converting your thoughts to speech." 'WHY DOES THAT SOUND FAMILIAR? IS IT LIKE THE MOVIE SOURCE CODE WITH JAKE GYLLENHAAL?' "I'm unfamiliar with that movie, Mr. Smith." 'AND I'M UNFAMILIAR WITH YOUR VOICE. WHO ARE YOU AND HOW DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM? AM I NOT IN COSTUME?' "My apologies…" 'NO BIG DEAL.' I heard a laugh. "My name is Dr. Thompson." 'NICE TO MEET YOU DOC. HOW LONG HAVE I BEEN OUT?' "Almost a day." 'DAMN.'

I heard a chuckle again. "You're an interesting young man. Tell me your story." 'WHAT STORY?' "You know… Scorpion Warrior." 'IT'S SCORPIO NOW, BUT SINCE THE CAT'S ALREADY OUT OF THE BAG, I GUESS IT'S OKAY.' So I let my brain recall everything back at the start of my career. "That's quite a story, young Jacob." 'I KNOW RIGHT? I DIDN'T EVEN REALIZE THE PART ABOUT MY MOM BEING A HERO TOO. YOUR TURN, DOC. WHAT'S YOUR STORY? WHY'RE YOU WORKING FOR A TWISTED DUDE LIKE LEX LUTHOR? AND WHAT'S 33.1?' Before he could answer, there was an explosion.

"I'm sorry, some other time!" He said quickly and urgently. "Don't try and move quite yet, you won't be able to for another half hour." 'EH, BEATS THE LAST TIME I WAS IN ONE OF THESE.' I couldn't tell whether he was gone or not. A little later, I was able to open my eyes and look around at my surroundings. 'Huh… well at least I can see again. So this is Cadmus?' I wish I could shrug. 'Beats David Cassedy's lair, that's for sure. I wanna know more about that explosion though. Aargh… I wish I could move.'

A little bit later, I heard another explosion. 'Dammit! 25 minutes, I'm so close to moving now!' A few minutes later, I looked over and saw an elevator door open, but no carriage. Out jumped three boys, one with messy black hair, much like mine, a spiky redhead in a yellow jumpsuit, and a third with white hair, brown skin, tattoos on his arms, and… gills? The kid in yellow sped off towards me. "Flash? Cool, I can talk now! Must've been 30 minutes already." I tried bust my way out of the tank with a right straight, but nothing. "Duh. Water. Slows you down." The spiky dude ran right past me. "Whoa. Okay, not Flash." 'His kid? Doubt it. I've known Barry for 3 years and he's never mentioned a kid Flash before.'

After Kid Flash ran past me, he slipped and was almost trampled by a stampede of… mutated hairless mammoths? What's with my adventure and mutants lately? First my adventure in those Wastelands, as Joan called it, and now this. Fortunately, none of the mammoths trampled Kid Flash. The messy haired kid and the snowy haired hipster looking kid walked by me. "Nothing odd here." Said Snowy. I was banging on the glass with my palms hoping to get their attention. "Hey!"

Nothing. Guess they can't hear me. 'Maybe if… HEY!' "Huh?" The messy haired kid looked in my tank. "Guess the clicking from the monitor caught his attention." I pointed to the monitor, and he looked. 'HELP ME OUT, WOULDJA?' He looked from the monitor to me. I nodded. "Gotcha." He ducked down and pressed some buttons on his glove. 'A CYBORG?' He must've heard that. "Not a cyborg, the Boy Wonder himself: Robin!" The water around me drained and the tank opened. I took off the weird snorkel. "Thanks. I'm Jake." "Uh… I'm kinda nervous about shaking hands with someone who's in nothing but their underwear…" I looked down. "Aw dammit… my costume's missing." I looked towards Kid Flash. "You okay over there?"

The parade of mammoths finally ended. "Like waiting at a train crossing huh?" Robin got the door open… and in the room was a bunch of other healing tanks similar to the one I was in. "Okay, I am officially whelmed." "I wouldn't say that…" I responded. "This is how they hide their lab from the outside world." Said Kid Flash. "Right," I replied. "The real Cadmus is off the grid. These things must power this whole lab." They just ignored me and gawked at all the bugs in the tanks.

"Uh… anyway, thanks for getting me out of there. Did anybody send you to rescue me?" I continued. "Rescue you?" Said the white haired kid. My eyes got wide and I took a step back. "Y-yes…?" "Nah. You just happened to be where we were passing by." Robin interrupted. "Don't mind Kaldur. He's gentle." Said Kid Flash.

I looked to each of the kids. "You're Kaldur…" "Call me Aqualad." He interrupted me. "Uh… right. You're Aqualad, you're Robin, and…" I looked to Kid Flash. "Are you Barry's son?" I asked. "Whoa! How do you know my uncle?" He asked me in surprise. "Okay… so… Nephew Flash?" I asked again. "Nu-uh. Wally West at your service. Call me Kid Flash." He replied. "I figured you were Kid Flash. I even thought you were." "Okay, so how do you know my uncle?" He asked me again. "We work together in the Justice League." The three kids looked at each other, and Robin and Wally said, at the same time, "You're in the Justice League?"

"Wait…" Said Aqualad. "Why should we believe you're in the Justice League?" I hovered a few feet in the air. "Does this work?" They all looked at me in amazement. "How…?" Said Robin with disbelief in his voice. "Ever hear of a hero named Scorpio?" I asked them. "No way…!" Said Wally. "Are you…! Are you him?" I smirked. "The one and only."

Robin walked over to a monitor. "Time to find out why." He plugged a cord into the monitor. "They call them… Genomorphs." The stats on them were enough to match me. Or even Superman himself! "They're living weapon!" "They're engineering an army! But for what?" I wondered. "Wait, there's another file. Project Kr?" The file was too encrypted to hack.

"Stop right there!" Said a voice from behind us. "Guys… company! Genomes too." I said cautiously. "Wait… Robin? Aqualad? Kid Flash?" The guy knows them? "I know you… Guardian. You're a hero." Said Aqualad. "Then what're you doing here?" Guardian told us he should be asking us that. "You're trespassing. Let me call the League. Maybe they can straighten…" "You think the League's gonna approve of you making weapons?" KF asked. "I'm part of the League and I don't approve of this myself." I told him. "Weapons… what are you…? What have I…?" He put his hand over his head as if he had a headache. "Take them down hard! No mercy!" He commanded the rest of the little Genomorph guys next to him. "Oh crap!"

Robin threw down a smoke bomb and used it to get away. A few of the other Genomes were on me like flies on rotten milk. I was exchanging punches with them, but they were not going down. I knocked one out and got to work on the other one. While all this went down, Guardian charged Aqualad and rammed him right into a wall. He recovered instantly, though, and engaged Guardian. One of his Genomorph bodyguards tackled me and he and the two that I didn't take down ganged up on me and beat the living daylights out of me. Aqualad and KF got them off me and we all followed to where Robin was hacking an elevator to get us out. "Dude! You ditched us!" I called to him. "You weren't behind me?" I used my heat vision to stall some of the smaller Genomes that were tailing us. With the other three already in the elevator, I flew in after them and the door closed behind me.

I noticed we were heading down. "How many basements does this place have?" "Dude, out is up." KF was scolding Robin, bad. "Project Kr is on sublevel 52." 'Why does Kr sound familiar?' "This is out of control," Said Aqualad, who sounded a little overwhelmed. "Maybe we should contact the League." "No!" I responded. "For now, I AM the League." The kids all looked at me. "I say we follow Robin's instinct. Besides, Kr sounds weirdly familiar." Even I have to admit it's hard taking myself seriously when I'm in nothing but boxers. Wet boxers I might add. It's very uncomfortable.

The elevator reached sublevel 52. When the doors opened, we saw a big hallway covered with weird, maroon slime. Robin and KF all ran inside, and Kaldur and I followed. "What's down there?" I wondered. My thought was interrupted by a loud "Halt!" and a humanoid figure with horns growing out of his head stepped out, followed by the horns glowing and him psychically throwing stuff at us. "Oh crap!" The stuff all missed us, and Robin retaliated by throwing a shuriken thing at him. Which was then stopped in midair and replaced with more heavy objects. "Run!" I called out and we ran down one of the hallways.

KF mowed down a scientist walking out of a room. Then he picked up a pylon and shoved it into the closing door. We all got through it safely before the pylon gave way and the door shut. Robin disabled the locks on the door so they can't get in. "Good job." I said. "We're trapped." Aqualad replied. "Gee way to praise the Boy Wonder, Killjoy."

"Guys…? Come here." Said KF. We walked over and Wally turned on a light that showed a guy sleeping in there with a big S on his shirt… "Just like Superman…" I mumbled. "Guys? I remember what Kr is. It's the atomic symbol for Krypton!" I finished. "The stuff Superman is weak to?" Asked Robin. "Yeah. I can also utilize it and turn it into a sort of beam from my hands. Too much of it, and it overwhelms me. It could even kill me." I explained to them the events following what happened.

KF was looking at the guy. "Robin, hack." Said Kaldur. Robin stuck the cord in one of the slots under the monitor again. "Weapon designated Superboy… a clone force-grown in…" "SIXTEEN WEEKS?" I continued. "From DNA acquired from Superman." Robin finished. "There's no way the big guy knows about that." Said KF. "I'll ask him when I get back." I told him. "Solar suit allows him to absorb yellow solar radiation 24/7." Robin continued. "And the things above him?" I asked. "Genomorph gnomes. They're telepathically force-feeding him an education." "They're also making a slave out of Superman's "son"." Said Wally. "Now we contact the rest of the League." Said Aqualad. He pushed his belt buckle while Wally and Robin were trying to contact the League themselves. 'J'onn, you there?' "No dice. Radio signals are being jammed." Said Robin. "My telepathic link with the Martian Manhunter is also being jammed too." I said. "We're in too deep." Finished Wally. "Literally." I added.

Outside, Guardian and some other Genomorphs were trying to get in. Back inside, we were all looking at Superboy. "That's not right." "Set him free." "Looks like we're all on the same page," I said. "Do it Robin." He hacked the control console and Superboy was let out.

The second he saw us, he tackled Aqualad and threw him aside like a ragdoll. "Robin? Is it too late to put him back?" I asked him, really scared. He was pounding Kaldur until I flew in and subdued him. "Calm down Superboy! We're on your side!" I had him in a full nelson and Robin and Kid Flash were latched onto his arms. Superboy uppercutted Wally and headbutt me smack in the nose, which sent me lurching back in pain. Robin threw a smoke bomb in his mouth then tried tazing him, but he didn't feel a thing. He grabbed Robin's line and pulled him back towards himself, catching him, throwing him on the ground, and stomping on his chest. I ran towards him attempting to bum rush him, but he caught me and threw me out of way. Then Aqualad pulled out one of the little katana… handle things on his back which also pulled some water with it. The water formed into a sledgehammer, which he used to smack Superboy back into that weird chair thing that he was sitting in before we released him.

I flew over to Robin and helped him up, while Aqualad attempted to reason with him… until Superboy jumped him and tried killing him again. He tackled Superboy and tried punching him, but he caught Kaldur's fist and kicked him back into the opposite wall. Despite him being a clone of Superman, Kaldur was kicking his ass. He caught Superboy in a half nelson and shocked him using the tattoos on his arms. 'Whoa.' But no dice. Superboy jumps up and bashes Kaldur against the roof, twice. The second time knocking Kaldur off his back. I caught Aqualad before he hit the ground and Superboy just walks right to the door and throws it open. "WHOA!" One of the scientists walks in and surveys the damage. KF and Kaldur were unconscious, Robin was in pain, and I didn't want to leave Kaldur in case Superboy was gonna come back and finish the job. "Attaboy."

"Surrender, or your friends get it." The scientist told me, I did as he told me. We were all put in a weird pod, kind of like the one I was in this a little bit ago, and the others were all unconscious. I was the only conscious one… and still in my boxers. "The least they could've done was give me some clothes. I'm starting to get cold." Superboy was just standing there, staring at me. Everybody woke up, Wally looked startled. "Welcome back. Superboy and I were enjoying a nice chat and having a very enjoyable staring contest." I said to the rest of them. "Stop staring! It's creeping me out!" Wally shouted. "Wally, don't forget who beat who…" I reminded him. "He can kill us with just one look." Robin finished.

"Superboy, listen to us. We only wanted to help you." I tried to reason with him. "Yeah, we free you and you kill us. How's that for gratitude?" Wally said furiously. "Kid, please be quiet now. I'm sure our young friend was not in control of his actions." Said Aqualad. "Yeah… anybody who isn't completely filled with rage could listen to reason," I started reasoning. "And we should probably take those Genomorphs that DIDN'T DO ANYTHING during the fight into consideration…"

"Wh-what if I wasn't?" He said. "Hey! He speaks English." I said. "Yes HE can!" He repeated. I made a face that looked like a cat baring its fangs as a joke. "Not like he said it." Said Wally. "The Genomorphs taught you. Telepathically." Kaldur reasoned. "They taught me much. I can read, write, I know the names of things…" Said Superboy. "But have you seen them?" Asked Robin. "Have they ever actually let you see the sky? Or the sun?" "Images are implanted in my mind, but… no. I have not seen them." Superboy said, a little sad. "Do you know who or what you are?" Asked Kaldur. "I am the Superboy, a Genomorph, a clone made from the DNA of the superMAN. Created to replace him should he perish. To destroy him should he turn from the light." There was tension in the air. "Well… he answered you… Kaldur." I said, hoping to break the awkward silence. "To be like Superman is a worthy aspiration…" Kaldur started. "I would know. I have some of his powers," I continued for him. "But you deserve a life of your own. Like Superman. Like the rest of us." "Beyond that solar suit. Beyond your pod. Beyond Cadmus."

"I live BECAUSE of Cadmus! It is my home!" He shouted. "Defensive!" I said. "But that's just a tube. We can show you the sun." Said Robin. "I'm pretty sure it's after midnight." KF interrupted. "Really? Well, Doc Thompson DID say I was out for almost a whole day…" I mumbled. "We can show you the moon." He continued. "In fact, we can introduce you to the Man of Steel himself." I told him. "No! They can't." "Oh look, the cavalry's arrived." I jokingly introduced a group of scientists who were accompanied by none other than Guardian. "They'll be otherwise occupied. Activate the cloning process." "I'm kind of allergic to getting cloned, and they broke the mold when they made us." I said. "And the batcave's crowded enough." Added Robin. "And get the weapon back in its pod!" The head scientist commanded.

"Hey! He's not an IT!" I said to him. "Help us." Kaldur whispered to Superboy. The Genomorph that was on the head scientist's shoulder leaped onto Superboy's shoulder and its horns started glowing, just like the alien dude we encountered earlier. "You are a weapon, and you belong to me, well… to Cadmus. You better not start "thinking" now. Just get back to your pod!" That set me off. "Hey! Lay off him, would you? If he's a weapon, then I am too!" Everyone stared at me. "You?" Said the scientist. "You look like less of a weapon than the superboy here." "If I had my costume, or at least a fresh set of clothes, I… well… I wouldn't be as grumpy as I am now…" I said. I kind of lost track of where I was going with that after I mentioned my clothes. "Way to lose track there." Said KF.

Superboy walked away. The other scientist that was with the first scientist and Guardian pressed some buttons on a console and some weird robotic arms popped up and shot us all in the chest. That was causing us major pain. While that was all happening, I was trying my best to bear through the pain while trying to bust out. It wasn't happening. At all. The pain was distracting me.

Superboy comes busting in and the arms stop shocking us. "Aargh… heart attack much. He walks towards us, even tossing the scientists and Guardian aside like paper cups. "Don't give me orders!" He said. "Please say you're here to help us and not fry us…" I said. He squinted his eyes, and said, "I don't have heat vision. I guess I can only help you now." "Not funny…" I replied. Robin busted out of his pod and complained about the time it took for him to bust out. "Really?" I said. "Batman will have YOUR head? The whole League will have our heads after tonight." I was finally able to bust out of my own pod. "You were saying?" Said Robin condescendingly. I broke the glass to my pod. "YOU were saying?" I repeated back to him.

Robin turned to Superboy. "Get Aqualad, I'll get Kid Flash." "Don't YOU give me orders either!" Commanded Superboy. 'Yikes.' He and Robin rescued Kaldur and Wally from their restraints and we ran out of the pod room. "We're still 42 levels below ground, but if we can make it to the elevator…" While Aqualad was saying all that while we were running through the hallway, a bunch of the mutant mammoths we saw earlier came around the corner. "Correction, if we survive." I corrected him. I saw the egg sacs on the wall hatching. "That's not a good sign, is it?"

Robin, Wally, and Kaldur all ran while Superboy and I fought the giant mutants. He knocked a couple out before being squashed by a third, which I promptly punched out. He then started punching another mammoth into the wall. "Superboy! We have to escape, not bury ourselves alive!" Kaldur said to him. "YOU WANT ESCAPE?" He picked up the mammoth I KO'd earlier and threw it onto two of the conscious ones.

Aqualad shoved an elevator door open and we all got inside. Superboy tried to fly up, but ended up falling with Kaldur after jumping a few levels. I flew up and caught them both. "YOU CAN FLY TOO?" Asked Superboy angrily. "You're welcome." I said and Robin and KF caught up to us too. I looked up and noticed an elevator wanted to pancake us. "Guys, we gotta get out. Now." I busted open the door and, at the last possible second, we all got out without a scratch. I hoped we'd be out in the clear, but we ended up meeting more of the Genomorphs. Superboy started running somewhere. "Come on!" He called to us.

We all followed him, first going down a hallway, then turning left and then right. As in right into a dead end. "Nice directions." I said to Superboy. "Yeah, you trying to get us all repodded?" Wally added. "Sorry, I thought…" Superboy started to say, but Robin interrupted him. "Don't apologize! This is perfect!" "What?" I asked him. He pointed to a vent cover, so I hovered up and pulled it off. "Nice directions!" I told Superboy, the tone from earlier sounding different than the tone I pulled earlier. I helped them into the vent before getting in last. "And it's cramped…" I have a bit of claustrophobia after my jerk of a cousin trapped in a closet for hours when I was eight. It's not too bad, but I do hate small spaces.

"Wait…" Superboy shushed me. After a bit of waiting, I heard little footsteps creeping up behind us. "Oh crap… they're coming after us." We all started rushing out of the vent and into a hallway. Robin pulled up a holographic keyboard on his glove. "I hacked the motion sensors." "Are you sure you aren't a cyborg, Robin?" "Positive." "But there's still plenty of them between us and out." He said. "But I finally got room to move!" Said Wally before he sped out and up the stairs of the stairwell next to us. 'Showoff.' We were following him until Robin pointed out that there were more behind us. "How many of them are there?" I asked and Superboy kicked the stairs off the foundation. "Well… that works." We were so close to escaping, but a blast door closed right before Wally got through it and he ran into it. "We're cut off from the street!" Aqualad pointed out while I was helping up Wally. "Really now?" Aqualad, Superboy and I all tried opening it, but it wouldn't budge.

Some more of the mammoths came around the corner. "Oh crap." Robin kicked open a door and we all followed him inside… only to come, once again, face-to-face with more of those Genomorphs. All their horns glowed red and we all fainted, except Superboy, who fell to his knees. A little bit later, I woke up, along with the others too. "Okay… something cool better not have happened cause if I missed it, I'm gonna be mad." I said after I woke up. "Go. I'll deal with Desmond." Was the only thing that Guardian said. "I don't think so!" Said the scientist that was with everyone earlier. "Project Blockbuster will give me the power to restore order to Cadmus!" He held up a vial and drank the liquid that was inside it. "What did he just drink?" I asked. He lurched a little bit then fell to the ground in pain. Then his coat ripped, he grew, and he basically became the Abomination, except ten times uglier. "Oh crap!"

Guardian ran to him, only to get bitch-slapped aside and right into a wall. Then Superboy ran towards him as well. He started fighting Blockbuster and was actually doing pretty good… until he got punched out himself, but he recovered and tried to curb stomp Blockbuster from the air, but the monster jumped into him and through the roof. "You think Lab Coat planned that?" Wally asked. "No," I replied. "He's too insane!" I grabbed Wally and Robin and flew through the roof while Aqualad jumped up behind us.

Superboy was still fighting Blockbuster, who grabbed his leg and threw him right into Aqualad. KF and Robin went to help them while I fought Blockbuster. The others weren't down for long though, and were able to join in the fight. KF sped through his legs to distract him. Blockbuster tried punching him, but I caught his fist, which caught him off guard long enough for Aqualad and Superboy to double team him and punch him square on; KF being a log to knock him down. He got up to see Superboy standing there, so he bum rushed him and ran into one of the support beams. He was beating on Superboy really hard. Aqualad comes in with his little water things and tries to help Superboy, but that didn't help. Blockbuster catches him and throws him to the floor, and Superboy into another support beam.

Kid Flash comes speeding in and tries to attack him, but Blockbuster catches him and throws him into Aqualad as soon as he tried to get up, and Blockbuster rushes him again and destroys the pillar, which caused the foundation of the building to start to fall apart. Then the building started to fall apart, which gave me an idea. "Robin, you have any blasting jelly?" I asked him. "No, but I have another idea. KF get over here!" He sped over while Blockbuster was killing Aqualad and Superboy so I stepped in to try and help, but I was smacked aside too, and right into a pillar. "Dammit!"

"Jake! Destroy the pillars!" Robin called out to me. "Got it!" I got to work destroying the rest of the pillar that Blockbuster threw me into. Superboy and Aqualad were doing the same while Kid Flash, who isn't as strong, was luring Blockbuster into destroying the other pillars.

Robin was drawing a big X on the ground, with Aqualad spraying water all over it. Wally lured Blockbuster to the same spot and Superboy and I knocked him down. Aqualad used his tattoos to generate electricity and electrocuted Blockbuster. Robin told us all to get out; he laid some explosives on the the pillars that we all destroyed, which exploded, and destroyed the lab and made it a mess of rubble. We didn't clear it in time, but we were all alright.

"We did it…!" "Was there ever any doubt…?" We were all congratulating each other and ourselves, although we weren't as excited about it as we should be since we were all exhausted from the fight. "Well Superboy, there's the moon." I pointed him in the direction and there was a dark figure flying down. "Superman?" I whispered to myself. "Well look at that. Do we keep our promises or what?" Said Wally. "Superman… PLEASE say you have something for me to wear…" I begged him as soon as he landed. "What happened?" He replied. "It's… kind of a long story. I'll tell you later." Clark offered me his cape, but it wasn't enough. "Never mind… I'll survive."

A bunch of the other members of the League followed closely behind. There was Red Tornado, Captain Marvel, "Hey J'onn…" I said when he landed, and Zatanna came in on a weird circle. Power Girl landed with her arms crossed. She looked like she was mad at me, then smirked. "You're even cuter under the mask Scorpio." I blushed a little. "I wish we could've met under other circumstances…" I said, a little embarrassed. "Did you bring something for me to wear?" I heard Zatanna say something, then, out of thin air, my costume appeared on me. "FINALLY!" Then I fell back on to my back. "Thank you Zatanna!" I looked at Power Girl. "Under Scorpio, my name's Jake Smith." She introduced herself as Karen Starr. "Nice to meet you."

A few moments later, Captain Atom, Hawkman, Wonder Woman, Hawkwoman, and one of the Green Lanterns all landed as well. "Well, well… so you're the hero who rescued Kiivita." Said Hawkwoman. It took me a while to realize it. "So… you know about that, eh? And…" I looked towards the Green Lantern. I then crossed my arms and smirked as he flew over to Superman. I flew after him and caught him. "Well, Uncle Hal…! Since when were you in the Green Lantern Corps?" "How'd you figure it out?" "You're my dad's closest friend, you married my aunt, and I'm sure I can recognize my favorite uncle." I gave him another smirk before seeing John Stewart came down carrying Green Arrow, Batman, Aquaman, and Black Canary. "What the hell? Did the entire friggin League come?" And last, but not least, the Flash. I waved to him.

Once the awkward silence descended like every hero of the Justice League, Superboy stepped forward towards Superman and pulled up the tattered part of his solar suit, showing the Man of Steel the similar styled S. At first, Superman's face looked like he was about to embrace Superboy, with the latter's face showing happiness for the first time since we got together… until Superman decided to be a superwuss and get scared. "Is that what I think it is?" Batman asked, breaking the sheer silence. "He." I called to him from where I sat back down next to Karen after I finished teasing Uncle Hal.

"I'm Superman's clone." Another moment of awkward silence. A few heroes even exchanging glances. "Start talking." Batman breaks the silence again. Good thing too, I was actually starting to go insane from the tension. After awhile, Captain Atom, and the two Hawks and Lanterns all left with Blockbuster getting arrested by the Lanterns. J'onn, Wonder Woman, and Clark were off to the side discussing something, but I couldn't pick it up. "Guess I don't have the super hearing yet…" I mumbled to myself.

J'onn looked towards Superboy, who was staring back at them. Then Superman walked up to Superboy. "We'll… figure something out for you. The League will, I mean. For now, I'd better make sure they get that Blockbuster creature squared away." That was all he said before taking off. I just looked at him with an angry look on his face. "Would you look at that?" I said angrily. "Superman, the Man of Steel, "Earth's Greatest Hero"? He can't even talk to Superboy," I walked up to him and placed my hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry, I'm sure he'll come around." He just brushed it off.

"Cadmus will be investigated. All 52 levels of it." Said Batman. "Something tells me that's not all you want to tell us Bats…" I responded. "We are not happy." "Called it." "You hacked Justice League systems," I looked to Wally and his group. "You did?" "You also disobeyed direct orders, and endangered lives." "Hey, Bats, I just went along with them. President Luthor kidnapped me and…" He wouldn't hear it. "You will not be doing this again." I looked from the group to the League and back to the group. "Batman, they rescued me. If it wasn't for them, I'd still be there." Bats just glared at me.

Aqualad stepped up. "I'm sorry, but we will." "Aqualad, stand down." Said Aquaman. "Apologies, my king, but no!" King? "Aqualad's right," I told Bats and Aquaman. "As a League member, I have some say in League decisions, and I say they did good work. They're a team." "If this is about your treatment at the hall, I'm sure the three of you…" Flash started to say, before he was interrupted by Kid Flash. "The four of us." He started. "Why let them tell us what to do?" Superboy interrupted KF. 'Whoa!' "It's simple: either get on board, or get out of the way." I looked at the League. "I'm all for it."

A few days later, we were in a mountain with a lot of wicked tech in it called Mount Justice. Uncle Hal was helping by installing the wicked tech. "This cave was the original secret sanctum of the Justice League." Batman explained to us. "Whoa, really?" I asked him. "We're fixing it so you can use it." He finished. "Since you four want to stay together and fight, unfortunately you'll have to listen to the rest of the Justice League," I explained to them. "That was the condition I was forced to agree to for you to become a team." "Red Tornado agreed to live here and be your supervisor, Jake will take his place whenever he's needed, while Black Canary is in charge of training." "Bats will give you your missions."

"Real missions?" Robin asked. "They'll be covert," I explained. "That was the other condition. They're the missions too small for the rest of us to handle, but they'll give you a chance to work together and develop your skills further beyond what we did at Cadmus." "The League will still handle the obvious stuff. That's why we have these big targets on our chests." Flash continued. "Cadmus is proving that the bad guys are getting stronger and smarter. Batman needs a team that can operate on the fly." Said King Aquaman. "The five of you will be that team." Power Girl flew down and landed next to me. "Five? Bats, there's four." I told him. He motioned towards a hallway. J'onn walked out with another alien who looks like him. "This is the Martian Manhunter's niece, Miss Martian." My eyebrows instinctively rose, but Power Girl elbowed me in the ribs. "Oowww…" I draped my arm over her shoulders. "Remind me not to piss you off again, babe." I whispered in her ear.

"I'm liking this gig more every minute." Wally whispered to Robin. "Welcome aboard!" He introduced himself and his friends. "I'm honored to be included." Wally and the group walked over to her and had a little conversation with her, and she changed her shirt to match Superboy's. "Impressive." I had to admit.


	22. Crossing Dimensions

Key: "Talking" 'Jake's inner thoughts/Mental communication with J'onn' '_J'onn talking with Jake_' [Metallo's voice] "RAISED VOICE" –Comm link– (Voiceover)

Scorpio

Chapter 22

Crossing Dimensions

"That was great." For the first time since the ordeal with Chao in Japan, I was finally able to get my well-earned superhero's reward: sleep. I woke up with a yawn and stretched since, well, I couldn't while I was in the healing tank after the Luthor Missile Crisis. 'Who knew Joan could pack one hell of a punch.' Between Joan, Superboy, and Blockbuster, I NEEDED that good night's sleep. And I finally got to spend the night with Karen Starr, aka Power Girl, since she's found out I was the Scorpion Warrior. 'Where'd she disappear to?' Ah well, I shouldn't really think too much about that. I destroyed the missile, saved the future, not to mention the whole damn country. I fell back down on my bed and let my mind wander to my recent adventures.

After daydreaming for a while, I looked on my nightstand to see a note from Karen. "Good morning Jake, you were still asleep so I got ready before you woke up. I'll fly by this afternoon and maybe we can see a movie sometime. I woke up a bit later than I wanted too so I didn't have enough time to cook you up some breakfast. See you later, K." I smiled at the heart she put at the end of the note.

Then my comm link beeped. "What's going on Clark?" I asked him after I picked it up. -Get Scorpio ready to go. Two of the usual patrol guards at Stryker's Island called in sick today so the warden asked us to fill in for them.- "Stryker's eh? Haven't been then for a while." I got in my Scorpio outfit and met Clark at the entrance to Stryker's.

"So Jake, new costume?" He asked me once I landed. "Yeah. I'm still wondering how Zatara managed to conjure up the specs to it." "And I'm still wondering why you were in your underwear at Cadmus." "Oh right. Well… after I destroyed the missile, I was picked up by Lex Luthor and taken to the facility under the lab where Aqualad, Robin, and Kid Flash found me. Well, I was in a healing tank like the one I was in after David Cassedy kicked my ass, but I was stripped of the costume before I was placed in it," We found ourselves going down the hallway that had Metallo's cell. "During the whole Cadmus Lab fiasco, I never got any new clothes or any of my new costumes until Zatara was there. I want to say hi to Metallo real quick."

I ran over to Metallo's cell… "Hey Johnny Boy!" I called out once I got to the cell. "Uh… Clark? Since when has a robotic psychopath been released for good behavior?" I asked him. "WHAT?" He called out after I asked him then ran over, almost knocking me down in the process. "Jake, we gotta go! Now!" We flew out of Stryker's, well, he pulled me up towards the stratosphere. "Clark, what are you doing?" He almost forgot he was pulling me along and let me go seconds before we left Earth's atmosphere, then he went the rest of the way.

About a half hour later, he sped down and caught me, nearly breaking my back. "What's going on?" I asked him once I caught my second wind. "Metallo is a very dangerous opponent." He explained to me. "I know. I know his story." We stopped in midair again and he looked me right in the eye; a scary serious look on his face. "When you first got caught up with the Justice League's enemies, you were completely underprepared and overwhelmed. I will admit that you've grown and become a very experienced member, even dealing with your own enemies. But Metallo is a very dangerous enemy. He underestimated you and assumed you were a Kryptonian like me. He is very dangerous." That look was kinda scaring me. "Let's go look for him then."

After I said that, a car flew through the air and Superman tried catching it, but, and I'm not sure how, he got pierced through the gut with a sawed off piece of girder. "CLARK!" I caught him in midair and he started coughing up blood. "Jake… don't worry about me," Clark started losing consciousness and his breathing was becoming labored. I wanted to help him, but I'd drop him if I tried to. "This is… Metallo's work. Stop him at all costs…" He lost consciousness.

This car must have a ton of kryptonite to hurt him this bad. The green kryptonite followed by a girder to the gut… I think he's dead… 'J'onn! I need help! Clark's in trouble!' '_How?_' 'I don't know…! I think it's Metallo!' "Oh god… Clark!" With Clark in tow, I flew to the direction that the car-girder came from and dropped Clark off at a building under construction then ripped the car-girder out from his gut and chucked the little shit as hard as I could, but he wasn't healing. "OH CRAP! Did the kryptonite… no!" I mentally shared our location with J'onn. 'He's not healing either! Get over here, quick!' A pool of blood started forming around Clark. "Oh god, this can't be happening…!" I kept hearing shrieks of terror close by, but I couldn't leave Clark in this condition. But then I saw J'onn fly over.

"What happened?" He asked hurriedly. "I don't know!" I'm seriously freaking out here. "I think I know who did it though. Get Clark out of here and I'll deal with him." J'onn picked him up and took him out of Earth's atmosphere, then I flew off to where the shrieks of terror were coming from. Then I saw a giant robot in the middle of the frickin city. "Giant robot… is going down!" I flew to the robot as fast as I could, but the robot just took its hand and slammed it down into me, sending me flying to the earth and landing in a crater. Again. I got a good look at his face and recognized it. "Metallo!" I flew out of the crater seconds before he was about to curb stomp me.

I tried to weave through his hands trying to swat me out of the sky like a flyswatter, then I just gave up, flew to a fuel truck, and chucked it at his chest. Then I used my heat vision to blow it up, which knocked him down. "That's… not supposed to happen." I flew over and caught him but he was too heavy and I couldn't keep him from falling. "Crap crap crap crap crap!" Here comes Clark's family, Supergirl and Power Girl to help me lift him up. "Thanks!" A big lightning storm rolls in. I flew over to Metallo's chest and absorbed most of the kryptonite without killing him, then got it into my hands and shot it into the clouds.

Lightning hits the krypto-beam and it travelled down to me. "Oh crap…" was the last thing I said before I blacked out.

[A funeral]

It was raining just as hard. "If it wasn't for him… I wouldn't be able to continue the good fight with the rest of you." A guy in a blue suit with wings coming out of the ears and a giant A on the forehead was at a podium giving a eulogy for what seems like a fallen comrade. An old lady stepped up, she looked like she wanted to say something, but she broke down crying and a younger girl around my age helped her down and started comforting her. A gruff looking man with big mutton chops was next. "I'm uh… not so good with speeches, but MJ… you have my sincerest condolences." Then he stepped up and was replaced with the buffest guy anyone might ever see with long blonde locks and a hammer at his waist. "Thor's a natural with words." Says a guy sporting a pretty handsome goatee with a light shining from his chest. "Nay… I have nothing to say…" Said Thor. "Please accept my sincerest apologies, young Gwen." "Well I have something to say. If I may, Thor." Thor stepped down and let the guy with the goatee up. "Peter Parker, wherever you are now, I hope your happier there. We'll continue the fight. For you. You were there to cheer us up when we were down. You were a friend, you were a comrade, you were a true Avenger." Everyone stared at him, impressed. (If only he was there for Eric's funeral.) "That was beautiful Tony." Said Gwen with tears forming in her eyes. "A true Shakespearean if I've ever seen one." Said Thor. After everyone said their eulogies, a casket, probably holding the Peter Parker that Tony mentioned, was lowered into the ground.

Lightning was striking wildly. "Thor, can't you do something about the lightning?" Tony asked him. "Nay," He replied. "I can't stop this lightning. It's peculiar though." One of the lightning flashes dumped me in the sky far from the funeral. I was falling though, but I was too unconscious to do anything. I landed with a thud and a skid, though, on something that looks like the deck of an aircraft carrier. If aircraft carriers fly. I was on a flying aircraft carrier.

A few minutes after I landed, I finally regained consciousness and stood up, hopefully to get a better understanding of where I am. 'My head's buzzing?' I heard a little voice in my head tell me to turn around, so I did and came face to face with a woman holding a gun to face. "Uh… hi? Can you help me?" I had hoped striking up a conversation with her would lower her gun. No such luck I'm afraid. "Who are you and how did you get aboard the helicarrier of the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division?" Well now, she's a right-to-the-point kind of gal.

I've never had my head warn me to a threat before, so I didn't want to take any chances and risk getting hurt. The lightning strike might have altered my powers. "Call me Scorpio." I noticed another gun was at her upper thigh along with the gun she has trained right on my forehead. "I have no idea how I got here unfortunately. Would a pretty woman like you be able to help a guy like me?" Karen's gonna kill me for that. "Flattery won't get you anywhere with me." She replied. "Well, can you put the gun down and help me at least?" I think that was a bit hurried, because my head buzzed again warning me to duck, so I did literally a second before she fired her gun at me. Then I did a backflip and kicked the gun out of her hand. That caught me off guard since I've never done anything like that since the accident.

She pulled her thigh gun and attempted to shoot me with it, but I kicked that one out of her hand too. "Can you help me now?" I asked her, but she started throwing punches at me. Pretty good ones. I tried countering and blocking others, but she got through my guard and kicked me in the face and knocked me out.

[A day passes]

"Did you really have to fight that hard?" Tony asked her. "He reminded me of him." She replied. "Really?" "Yeah." I was in a giant room that was about the size of the main room in Mt. Justice, then I woke up. "Well hello Scorpio, you're awake." A familiar voice came out of a loudspeaker. "You learned my name," I replied to the voice. "And you said flattery wouldn't get you anywhere. Wanna tell me where I am and what I'm doing here?" A door opened somewhere on the other side of the room and shot a rocket at me. "WHOA!" I jumped up and out of range of the rocket's explosion, actually landing on the bot's shoulder. "What the hell's going on?" I demanded of the loudspeaker. The bot grabbed me and threw me to the other side of the room. Almost instinctively, I landed on the wall feet first, and I was actually sticking to the wall when I fell forward and hit the wall with my chest. "I can stick to things?" The buzzing in my head told me to jump off the wall, so I jumped off and stuck to the wall to see a laser blast it.

"That's impossible though," Said Tony. "He died." "Then how does he have his powers?" Said the woman. "I don't know Natasha…" Tony replied. "Hey Scorpio," His voice came out of the loudspeaker. "Aim a hand at the robot's head, then press your middle and ring fingers into your palm." I was confused at what he meant, but I did anyway. Actually, I didn't point at the robot, I just pressed those fingers into my palm anyway and a stringy … web-like string… shot out from my wrist and hit the wall on the other side.

"HOLY CRAP!" That caught me off guard and I lost my grip on the ceiling, but I shot the string up at the ceiling and it stuck before I hit the floor. "Am I a spider…?" I looked at the robot. I aimed my other wrist at the head and pressed my fingers into my palm again and the same stringy substance shot out and at the robot's face. "Am I a spider?" "I knew it." Natasha said to herself. "That's impossible though. It's impossible for powers to transfer though."

Thor came walking over. "What is it that we're looking at? Is that our new friend you brought in, Natasha?" He asked her. "Yeah…" She said, distracted. He looked at me through the glass and I waved to them. "Thor, does your father have as much control over lightning that you do?" Tony asked Thor. "Aye," He replied. "Vastly superior to mine. May I ask why?" "Remember that lightning storm yesterday? During Peter's funeral?" "Aye. You asked me if I would be able to make it stop?" "Yeah, yeah. The strange thing is that the last lightning bolt flashed around the time Natasha said that Scorpio here appeared on the helicarrier." "What are you getting at, Tony? Thor's father summoned him here in a flash of lightning?" Natasha said sarcastically. "That's what I'm saying." Tony replied. I was playing around with my new powers from the start of their little meeting, and for the first time since the accident, I was able to do parkour again.


	23. Mister Sandman

Key: "Talking" 'Jake's inner thoughts'

Scorpion Warrior

Chapter 23

Flint Marko

"Welcome, Scorpio, to the Avengers' Mansion," After Tony took me down to the earth in an awesome looking suit of armor, the first stop was this big gated mansion that might be twice as big as Bruce's batcave. "I understand you've met Natasha Romanoff." "Who's Natasha Romanoff?" I asked him. "She's the Black Widow. I believe you met her this morning?" "I think I met her foot…" I rubbed my face out of memory of the kick she gave to it. "You should learn to be careful when an unregistered mutant appears on the SHIELD helicarrier." We got to the living room and I sat down next to a guy wearing a purple outfit and Tony went somewhere else. I waved to the other guy and he waved back. He had a bow and a quiver of arrows next to him. I noticed he had a hood on the costume; I'm wondering if he's one of these mutants Tony mentioned earlier.

"Hey, I'm Hawkeye. You can call me Clint, Clint Barton." He seems like a nice guy. "Scorpio." I introduced myself while I shook his hand. "Is that your codename?" He asked me. "Codename?" "Yeah. Like I said, my name's Clint but I'm a deadly shot with a bow and arrow. In battle, I'm known as Hawkeye." I looked towards the room Tony entered. "Does Tony know?" I asked him. "Of course. He's Iron Man. In fact," He grinned. "We're an entire team of superheroes. I'm Hawkeye, Tony's Iron Man. We have Thor, God of Thunder, Jan van Dyne is the Wasp, her boyfriend, Hank Pym, is Ant-Man…" "He can shrink himself to the size of an ant, or increase his size exponentially." Said Tony. "Yep," Clint continued. "When he grows, we call him GIAnt-Man. Who else is on our team?" Since he's mentioned a bunch of other superhumans, I decided it would be alright if I revealed my own identity, so I took off my mask. Then a sort of robotic voice came out of nowhere, scaring the hell out of me. "There's T'Challa, the Black Panther, and Captain America, the world's first superhero." Said the voice. "Please tell me I'm not going crazy and hearing voices in my head again." I said, a little worried. "Nah, that's JARVIS, Tony's AI butler. He kind of lives inside the mansion, sort of." "I apologize for not making my presence known earlier." Said JARVIS. "No problem…" I said, still a little scared. "Anyway, last but not least, there's Dr. Bruce Banner. But he's a big green monster named Hulk. Bruce hasn't been seen for a while."

"That's a bit scary." I said. "Anyway, Scorpio's my superhero name. My real name is Jake. Jake Smith." "Well how long have you been fighting crime Jake?" "About 3-4 years. I haven't kept very much track." "What can you do?" "Well, I used to be a regular Superman, but now I'm a Spider-Man." "What do you mean by that?" "Well, I used to be able to fly and shoot lasers out of my eyes, but now…" I demonstrated my new powers for Clint, by shooting a web onto the ceiling and dangling upside down, kinda like a yoyo. He did a spit take with a bottle of water he was drinking. "Hey Tony, come here!" He called for Tony, but no answer.

He pulled a card out of his wrist and started talking into it. "Hey Tony, I have something to ask you." "What's up, Clint?" I heard Tony's voice come out of the card. "How did Jake get Peter's powers?" Clint said into the card. "I don't know either. I think it has something to do with either Thor or his father. Send him down here. I want to give him something." Clint showed me where to go, so I went down in an elevator. 'Whoa! This is even bigger than the batcave.' The elevator let me out at the bottom of the batcave lookalike, so I stepped out and to the room Clint wanted me to go to.

"Tony?" I called for him when I got to the room. "Yeah, in here." I followed the sound of the voice, wishing I had my x-ray vision to make it a whole lot easier. I got into the room and Tony was in the armor he wore when he dropped me off on the earth, but he had the helmet off. "Hey, Jake. I want to welcome you to the team. After I saw you up at the helicarrier, I thought I'd welcome you as a member of The Avengers." After he offered me the position, he held a card out for me, which I took. "That card is a special ID card. Not only does it remind JARVIS that you live here, but it also acts as a communicator." I showed him the comm I had on my wrist. "Like this." He looked at it for a second before saying, "What's it do?" "I already have my own comm link, Tony. I'm part of another superhero team called the Justice League. Speaking of… I should check in with them and my dad so they don't worry about me, and make sure Clark's alright…" I said that last part quietly to myself.

I turned around and tried contacting Batman in the comm link. No answer. I then switched to my mental link with J'onn. 'Hey, J'onn, are you there? Is Clark doing alright?' There was no answer. I had a scared look on my face. "Oh… no…" "Is something wrong Jake?" Tony asked me. "I can't contact the rest of my team… Tony, can JARVIS increase the range of my comm watch?" "Already done, sir. Try again." Said JARVIS. "And remind me to try and get used to listening to a disembodied voice." I said to Tony. "A uh… AI butler." I tried my comm link again. "Batman, can you hear me? Come in." Still nothing. "Karen?" It was as if I was wearing an ordinary watch. "I apologize sir." Said JARVIS. "It's okay…" I replied dejectedly and sadly took the ID card then got in the elevator to go back to the main mansion.

The elevator got to the main floor pretty quickly. It opened up to a big green ripped bodybuilder looking monster. My face looked like I had just seen a ghost. "David Banner?" Hopefully it was nicer than it looked. It shook its head. "H-Hulk…?" He nodded his head. He didn't look like a bad guy. I squeezed by him then continued back to the living room and sat back down on the couch and sighed. 'Where am I? This sure doesn't feel like Metropolis.' I went over to the kitchen to try looking for a phone since, well, I left my cell phone at my apartment. "Hey JARVIS, is there a phone around here?" I feel weird talking to a house, but I'm gonna try to get used to it. "Yes sir, it should be behind you." I turned around… and saw it. "Oh, thanks." I tried dialing my dad's precinct extension. Nothing. Then I tried my apartment. Again, nothing. I groaned a little in sadness. "Is something alright?" JARVIS asked me. I sighed again. "I don't belong here…" I said to myself, not knowing I said that out loud. "I'm sorry?" "Just feeling a bit homesick." I tried to come up with an excuse and that was the best I could do. 'Why am I here though?'

After trying my apartment, once again to no avail, I decided to go out and practice my new powers.

I went downtown and into a dark alley so nobody would see me, then I tried the sticking to walls power that I got yesterday. So one by one, I stuck my hands on the walls and pulled myself up. Not by gripping any handholds, but I was actually sticking to the wall. And, not only were my hands sticking, my legs and feet were sticking to it as well. "Holy crap! I'm a spider!" I got to the top of the roof and decided to try out the new sticky string stuff. I aimed my wrist at a coffee cup that somehow ended up here, pressed my fingers into my palm and the string shot out of my wrist and clung to the cup. "Is that web?"

I heard an alarm that sounded like a bank was being robbed, so I ran towards the edge of the roof I was on and jumped to the next, and repeated until I got close to the bank. I took the clothes I was wearing off to reveal my Scorpio costume and stuck the mask on then got to work. A guy wearing a green and white striped shirt was backing out of the bank with a gun in one hand and and big bag in another. "This is how Scorpion Warrior was born, and this is how Scorpio will continue his quest." I jumped off the roof and shot a web out at the roof of the bank. I guess he didn't notice me because as soon as I landed, I shot a web at the gun which made him notice me. "Spider-Man?" I heard him say in surprise. "Nope, you can call me Scorpio!" I yanked the gun out of his hand and shot webbing at his feet and yanked at them, causing him to bail worse than a skateboarder losing his board.

Then I shot webs at his wrists and ankles and grabbed the money just as the police got here and aimed their guns at me. "Put the money down now sir." I put my hands up in the air. "It's not what it looks like, I'm not with him." I was putting the money down but they still had their guns pointed at me. "Now the gun." One of the cops said. The gun was actually sticking to my hand. "Oh crap… now officers, it isn't what it looks like." "Officers help! This maniac just jumped me out of nowhere!" The bank robber said. "Yeah… I saw that coming." I slowly set the gun down and looked to the robber. "Buddy, nobody's gonna believe you. There's a whole bank of witnesses." I looked up to the police and said, "Take him away officers." "Sure thing Spider-Man. Glad to have you back." One of them replied. "I'm not Spider-Man, I'm Scorpio." I said with a big grin for some cameras before swinging off.

A few days later, I was hanging out in the mansion when Clint comes and turns on the news with the story A New Spider-Man In Town. Is He Just As Menacing As The Old Spider-Man? "Menacing?" I sat there listening to how the ugly mug of the guy named Jameson was bashing me. I just childishly shot a web out at him. "Don't think anything of it Jake, Jameson just blows smoke." He reassured me. "He would always bash the "old Spider-Man" all the time, but New York always loved him. Who knows, maybe one day you'll be a hero everyone can look forward to too just like him." "No way. I'm not gonna live up to his reputation. As long as I'm here, I'm gonna make my own name." I replied confidently.

Later that day, I decided to enroll myself in the local college. During the lunch period, I heard some people talk about Scorpio. Some were agreeing with this Jameson person, others were talking about how I had the same powers as Spider-Man, and a couple even defended me. "It explains how he got to that robber right then." One of the Jameson fans said. "No way. I'm sure he just happened to be there, right New Guy?" I didn't even realize she was talking to me. She was a pretty blond with shoulder length hair who looked way to familiar. "Karen?" She looked back at me weirdly. "Karen? My name's Gwen. Gwen Stacy." She held her hand out, and I shook it. "Jake. Sorry, you just kinda look like my girlfriend. Anyway, what about who now?" She giggled and repeated her question to me. "Is he a menace or not?" "Oh that? Oh, I'm not sure. I just moved here from Kansas… to become a…" I noticed a camera around another, redheaded girl's neck. "Journalist."

"Really now?" Said the redhead. I gave a big cheesy grin, and she snapped a picture. "Your first story: New Guy Expresses Interest In Journalism." She said while moving her hands like a news line. "I'd read it." She and Gwen giggled and she introduced herself as Mary Jane Watson. "My friends call me MJ. Nice to meet you Jake. I work at the Daily Bugle." "Really? Is that close to here?" She and Gwen exchanged looks. "Wow, you MUST be new here. The Daily Planet is the big triangle looking building down on Fifth Avenue. You have any journalism experience?" "I was a bullpen editor for the Daily Planet back in Kansas." I replied. "Editor. Not journalist." She said dully. "I can do it. I'm just as good with a camera as I am with a pen."

After MJ's last class, she and Gwen took me on a tour of the Daily Planet. The last stop was the top floor. "Who am I hearing?" I was hearing a degrading voice yell some things about getting pictures of something. MJ then kept pushing the button to go to the bottom floor repeatedly. "Uh… Jameson's not in a good mood right now, we'll come back later." "Great… I can tear him a new one." I muttered to myself. "What are you talking about?" Said Gwen. That snapped me out of some angry funk I was in. "Huh? Oh, nothing. Never mind." They both looked at me with suspicious looks on their faces. The door opened on the top floor and MJ kept mashing the close door button. "Just trying to avoid Jameson's wrath."

Once the doors closed again, we went down a few feet before MJ hit the call cancel button. "Okay…? If I'm on Girls Gone Wild, shouldn't we be on a beach?" I said while trying to be sarcastic but with general concern. "Why'd you shut off the elevator?" She jammed a finger in my mouth then took her phone and her camera. "I recorded Scorpio's news program cause I wanted to do a little investigating to see if it wasn't Peter operating under a different handle, then I noticed that there were no records of anyone named Scorpio until the bank robbery and he stopped Flint Marko." "That's his name?" I mumbled. MJ got the news program on her phone, which included a close up of Scorpio's grin, then the cheesy grin I shot earlier. "You are Scorpio, aren't you?" Said MJ accusingly. "H-how do you know…?" I asked her. I got a little nervous at that point. "Well… you said YOU were gonna tear Jameson a new one. Why would you want to? You shouldn't have any beef with him. Also, why would YOU want to know Flint Marko's name? He's a bank robber. The picture I took of you? You have the same big grin that he's flashing. Also, in the same picture…" She reached for the bottom of my shirt and lifted it up, revealing part of my costume. "There was something under your shirt the exact same shade of color as this." She was referring to my costume. I pulled down my shirt and said, "You guys have to swear to an oath of secrecy." They both agreed with me and started asking me questions while the elevator went down. "You can't make this a story, MJ. You have to promise me." I said with a straight face. "Deal." They both agreed to keep my secret and I answered all of their questions about my superhero career.

While that was all happening, Flint Marko was sitting in his jail cell. He had just received news that his ex-wife moved to California with their daughter after the news story aired. "I would've gotten off scot-free." He mumbled to himself. "Scorpio… I will have revenge."


	24. Doctor Octopi

Scorpion Warrior

Chapter 24

Otto Octavius

It's been a little while after the police arrested Flint Marko, the bank robber the police arrested the other day, and a few days since Gwen and MJ found out about me. Just a few moments ago, they were caught sneaking into the Avengers Mansion, and they were caught by Hawkeye and another person wearing a strapless black and yellow dress over leggings, with yellow gloves and boots, along with antenna-like headgear covering her ears. I happened to be walking by when I heard Gwen say, "We came with Jake." Um… what? "What are you guys doing here?" I asked them. "We came with you, didn't we Jake?" I caught the tone in her voice. She's trying to get me to agree with them. "I didn't even know you guys were even following me." I looked at Hawkeye and said to let the girls go. The girl next to him introduced herself as Wasp, then shrank herself and flew away. "How'd they get past security? How do they even know about this place?" Clint asked me. The girls explained everything.

"Oh, before I forget," Said MJ. "There's a science expo going on tomorrow and Jameson's sending me to cover it. Would you like to come?" I laughed a little at the irony. "A lab accident gave me my original powers. Sure, I'm in." I looked to Hawkeye. "Wanna join me Hawkeye?" He shrugged. "Sure, why not. I got nothing else planned for tomorrow. I could probably convince Hank to come."

The next day, Clint, Hank, and I tagged along with MJ to this science thing. Gwen had a class and couldn't make it. "Hello, ladies and gentlemen." A guy walked into the room wearing a harness. "My name is Dr. Otto Octavius. I welcome you all to my demonstration." "What is it?" One of the audience members asked. "Glad you asked." A tarp behind Dr. Octavius was lifted up, revealing four curving pillars behind him. The whole crowd started murmuring. "Whoa, this must've cost a fortune." I whispered to MJ. "Excuse me Dr. Octavius, how did you afford all this?" She asked him. "Funding was provided by Norman Osborn and OsCorp Industries." "So then if something goes wrong, he's to blame." I whispered. "What is that, Dr. Octavius?" MJ asked. "This machine, my dear, is designed to provide renewable energy to the whole city." Dr. Octavius replied.

Another tarp lifted up to reveal a set of four arms with 3 claws at the end of each arm. "These arms will help me. They are resistant to heat and magnetism." This coiled… I don't know how to describe it… spine, I think, unwrapped itself and latched onto Dr. Octavius's spine. MJ had a look of fright on her face which caused her to cling to my arm, Clint and I had looks of disgust on ours, and Hank had one of intrigue on his face. I reminded her of her job at a newspaper, and she started taking a few pictures. Dr. Octavius turned to the machine with the four posts while one of the arms reached over and took a ball with a little orb that looked like it had little shaved sides and put it into the center. The pillars activated, spinning the little ball quickly and shooting it with little lasers before it exploded into a big ball that looked like the sun. "Where's my SPF 5000?" I joked.

While MJ took some more pictures, I started whispering to Clint and Hank. "I'm starting to get a bad feeling about this." "Yeah, me too. I'm going back to the mansion to get my bow and arrows." Clint replied, then was about to leave, until we noticed some of the metal parts of the lab were starting to warp and the buzzing in my head was getting worse. I turned towards Dr. Octavius to see the sun's containment field was being breached and he was trying to contain the fluxes with the metal arms. MJ's camera started to pull her towards Octavius's machine, so I shot a web at her in the confusion and nobody saw anything, and I got her camera too; she thanked me as soon as I caught her.

"Hank, Clint, get everybody out of here! Scorpio's gonna appear on the scene soon." I dashed out of there and changed into Scorpio. As soon as I got back in, chaos had ensued in the lab. "Dr. Octavius! Shut it down!" I called to him. He tried assuring me that he had it all under control. "Dammit Otto, shut it down!" The guy Octavius pointed out earlier when he was thanking OsCorp for the tritium, Norman Osborn, tried to get close to him, but one of the arms hit him off to the side. The sun finally breached the containment field, so much so that some of the solar flares destroyed a bit of the lab, dropping some debris on Rosie Octavius, but I swung by and saved her. Another of the flares started to electrocute Dr. Octavius, so I had to swing back over to the giant plugs on the wall and pull them out myself. I was able to pull the plugs, but I couldn't pull them out in time to save Octavius's wife from being a victim of some stray glass, "No…!" The sun imploded, pulling in the pillars surrounding it, leaving them warped beyond repair and Dr. Octavius unconscious on the floor.

After all the commotion and hype ended, there were ambulances to help any injured and the police came to question any witnesses. One of the victims was Dr. Octavius's wife, the lady Scorpio saved earlier. I was sitting on the steps of Octavius's lab, pretty sad over his loss. He woke up earlier after those weird arms were taken off and he was carted off to jail. MJ came down and kissed me on the cheek. "What was that for?" I asked her when I came to my senses. "That was for saving me, and definitely for saving my camera." She replied with a big grin. "I got some amazing pictures." I saw some press vans driving over here. "I'm sure Jameson is gonna love pictures of Scorpio, MJ."

I ducked behind an alley and nobody saw me change into my Scorpio costume. In order to avoid any suspicion, I climbed up the back of the alley and up to the roof for full display. The press was there by the time I got up to the roof and some news reporters were already doing their reports, so I thought I'd drop in like a yo-yo. I jumped down and shot a web up to the roof and attracted the attention of the news. They all came to me and started taking my picture and asking me questions, all of which I was answering. They gave me questions like who I was and what I did and, like last time, comparing me to Spider-Man. "Trust me, I'm not Spider-Man, my name is Scorpio!" I said to the cameras.

Later, I was at the mansion with Gwen, MJ, and Tony. "Glad you weren't there, Tony. The tritium Octavius used went haywire and started swallowing up all the metal. It might've torn out… that thing." I was referring to the light in his chest. "The Iron Man armor would be eaten too." He added. I flipped on the news to, once again, see the ugly mug of J. Jonah Jameson. "Wonder how he's gonna bash Scorpio THIS time." I said with arms folded. "Tragedy struck as the wife of Dr. Otto Octavius was killed in a freak accident involving one of Dr. Octavius's machines and none other than superhuman newcomer Scorpio." "I called it." I said and shot a web out at the TV. "Oh, Jake, don't worry about Jameson. You saved a lot of lives today." Said MJ. "Yeah… you're right. I don't need that blowhole." I shot another web at the TV. "You know you're cleaning that up, right Jake?" Said Tony, completely ruining the moment. "Yeah I know."

A cop was on his way to put Dr. Octavius in a cell when one of the deputy jailers went up to the cop and told him that somebody paid his and Marko's bails. They walked out and saw a limo. A door opened for Marko and Octavius, so they got in. "Hello Otto, hello Marko." Said the guy who let them in. "I have a proposition for you… involving a certain Spider-Man wannabe named Scorpio?" "If it wasn't for him, I would've gotten the money needed for my daughter's surgery." Said Marko. "Yes… and Otto, we have a mutual understanding. You help me with a few projects, and I'll give you your arms back and all the tritium you'll ever want." He replied. "And what's in it for me, Osborn?" Norman Osborn leaned forward. "I understand Scorpio ruined your life as well as mine and Dr. Octavius's reputations here?" Marko grinned. "I'm in."


	25. A Shocking Twist

Scorpion Warrior

Chapter 25

Shocking Surprise

Seeing as how I was new to the university, Gwen thought it would be good to go on a tour. I thought it would be a good idea. Our last stop was the biolab, where one of her professors, Dr. Curt Conners, was working on some kind of experiment involving… well, I'm not exactly sure. I'm not a scientist. I'm sure Hank would understand. "Hey Dr. Conners, I didn't get to finish your lecture before I had to leave." Gwen said. "Do you mind going over it again here?" "Not at all, Gwen." He replied with a smile. "Uh… hi? I'm Jake. You didn't forget about me, didja Gwen?" I said with a slight joking tone in my voice. She giggled sheepishly and introduced us. "Dr. Conners, this is my friend, Jake. Jake, my physics professor, Dr. Curt Conners."

"And I'm Eddie Brock." A tall, muscular, blonde guy came walking out from one of the walls that another guy with brown hair was working on. I took his hand and shook it. "Quite a grip, Eddie. You a football player?" I asked him. "Used to be," He replied. "All nerd now. I hung up my jersey after high school. You have quite a grip yourself, Jake. You an athlete?" "Nah. I used to do parkour, but I had an accident at a science lab back in Kansas and I had to quit." I said. "Aw, I'm sorry. That must've been fun." "Is." I said. "Recently, I've been able to do parkour again for some reason."

"Anyway, Dr. Conners?" Eddie said to him. "Oh yeah. Let's see… in nature, everything is connected. As scientists, we explore and expand beyond those connections to the benefit of society." He put a glove on and picked up a snake hook. "We're experimenting with genetically altered electric raisin eels." Eddie chimed in. "Sounds yummy." I said. "Sounds dangerous." Added Gwen. "It is dangerous." Dr. Conners replied. "But think what it could mean if we could harness this bioelectricity, generate an alternate form of energy… a new, CLEAN source of power." "Clean source of power?" I quipped. "Wanna start with a clean tank first?" "It is." Eddie replied. "There's a fluid in there that I call sludge. It increases the eel's bioelectric signature." "In fact, those signatures have become so intense that we've been forced to upgrade the lab's bioelectric filters."

I looked to the repairman. "We've been forced?" He said sarcastically. "I stand corrected. We're forcing Max here to upgrade." Busted. A woman came out here with a little boy. He looked tired. "I'm guessing she's his wife." I said. "That's right." She said. "I need to get Billy to bed." She said to him. "Sorry, I lost track of time. I have to wait for Max to finish, you go on home." I yawned and looked at the time. "It's a little late. I think we should go hit the hay ourselves." I walked out the lab and Gwen tagged along. "You never said you did parkour." She said snidely. "I didn't?" I said. "Nope. Are you famous?" "I was. Like I said earlier, I was in an accident and had to retire. That accident is what gave me my original set of powers," I told her. "One of which involves flight. That would've been cheating, so I had to retire. Can you make it home alright? Or you want to swing by?" I offered. "Heights kinda make me a little dizzy. I'm sorry." She said sadly. "Oh, don't worry about it, please." I said with a grin.

"Just be careful though. I don't have any way for you to contact me if you get in trouble." I said. "I'll be safe." Gwen said as she went down to the subway.

I got back to the Avenger's mansion and jumped onto the couch. "How's it going, JARVIS?" "Everything is fine, sir. Why do you ask?" He replied. "Just don't wanna go crazy being here by myself." Then I had a thought. "Has Tony ever upgraded your systems for… cross-dimensional communications?" "Cross-dimensional communications?" He repeated. "Yeah. Say, there's this universe," I was referring to where we are now. "Then there's an entirely different universe of entirely different superhumans." I was referring to where I came from. "I believe if I was able to analyze an object coming from that dimension, then I may be able to achieve communications with said dimension." I shot up faster than I ever have at any kind of news. "So, the bigger the source, the stronger the connection?" I asked him. "I should be able to make a connection with anything, but I do believe you are correct, Master Jacob."

You could not imagine the excitement on my face, but I tried to calm down. "Scan my costume and myself." "You should make your way down to the basement, Master Jacob." I walked over to the elevator and went down to the basement. "So, what am I down here for?" I asked. "The basement will be able to amplify the connection. Do you have an object you want scanned?" "Myself." I said. "You should be a good source. Please step into the scanning chamber." He replied and I did so. After scanning me, he told me to go up to the kitchen, to where I tried calling my dad at his precinct.

"Hello?" The very familiar sound of my own father was on the phone. "Dad?" I said to him. "**JAKE**? WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN THE LAST WEEK AND A HALF?" "Okay, one: ow. Two: nice to hear your voice too pop." "Well, where've you been?" "Check this out: I'm in another dimension and they have their own superhero team." I told him in excitement. "Another dimension? Like the last time you disappeared? How are you calling me?" He was referring to the time I went back to the past to the time where alchemy was big. "No dad, it was nothing like that. Tony Stark, Iron Man, has a mansion with this awesome high-tech AI named JARVIS, and he helped me call you." I heard JARVIS thank me for the compliment.

"Anyway, the Avengers is the superhero team in this dimension, like our dimension's Justice League, and, for some reason, I don't have my own powers. I do have the powers of a local hero named Spider-Man. I can crawl on walls, shoot webbing from my wrists, and I have a sixth sense that warns me to danger about to happen." "I heard about spiders having something like that." He informed me. "I guess it's called a spider sense then. If I have those powers along with the powers of Superman, I could be so much better in fights. Anyway, I'm gonna go and call Karen and the rest of the Justice League. See ya dad."

I called Karen and told her everything I told my dad. She told me that Supergirl took Clark to the sun before they got to Metallo to help me, and that Clark is up and still fighting. "That is the best news I've ever heard." I said to her. "When are you coming back, Jakey? I miss you." She told me. "I miss you too. I don't know when I'll be back, though. I'm alright, so you have nothing to worry about. I'll try to call you as much as I can." "That won't be possible, I'm afraid." I heard JARVIS say. "What…?" "This is draining my systems. So you won't be able to call again for a while." That made me depressed. "Oh… I guess I can't hun… I'll be sure to call you when and if I ever get back. I love you." I told her. "I love you too. Bye Jakey." I sadly hung the phone up. "Thank you so much, JARVIS, for doing this for me. I really appreciate that." "It is no trouble at all, sir. I am glad to be of assistance." I fell on the couch again and fell asleep.

The next morning, I met MJ at the local coffee shop and I told her my idea about hiring her as Scorpio's publicist. "Try not to let Jameson have his hands on my pictures though, alright?" "For the millionth time, I promise you Jameson will not get his mitts on these photos." MJ assured me. She went to work getting some shots of a fancy gala that none other than Jameson himself is at. I saw a guy wearing a really funky mask and a brown jacket and hat walk into the shop. He grabbed a cup of coffee out of the barista's hand but paid for it, a little hurried I might add. A little slot opened up around what I would think is the mouth and he tried to drink it, but some weird electricity shot the cup out of the guy's hand. "Whoa… poor guy…" I couldn't help but say. He started complaining about the drink, and all of a sudden, all the electric stuff in the whole coffee shop either exploded or shorted out. "Holy crap!"

He ran out of the coffee shop, but I chased after him, running down an alley to change into my costume. I jumped off the roof of the coffee house, and chased after him while shoot some webs at him to get his attention. "Hey buddy, let's talk." I said to him as soon as I got his attention. One of the webs pulled off the funky mask, which revealed a head full of electricity. "Oh crap!" "Leave me alone!" He called out and shot some bolts of electricity out at me. One of the bolts caught me and threw me into a building then onto the ground. "Ow…" "You shouldn't have done that!" He shouted once I came to. "You really shouldn't have done that!" "Yikes!"

As he was walking towards me, actual damage was being done to the city. "Why'd you attack me?" He asked me. "I just wanted to talk to you, I didn't mean to "attack" you." I replied. He was shooting bolts of electricity at me, and I was doing my best to dodge them. He shot another bolt at the building I was on and I had to jump from it, but he caught me in another blast and threw me into a building again. "Well that's getting old… listen, Electro, I didn't mean to attack you!" He shot more bolts of electricity at me, so I was forced to web up a couple of the TVs at the electronics store and throw them at him. "Stop it!" He shouted.

That electricity was getting worse, so I tried tackling him. Didn't work. He put up this weird… shield thing out of the electricity, which caught me and threw me into a car. I bounced off it and fell on the ground, exhausted. "Y-you stop doing that and let's just talk things out…" I said. "You should've left me alone!" Once again, he shot more bolts of lightning out at me. I jumped all over the block to try to get away and I tried hiding behind a billboard to think of a way to stop Sparky. But I heard my Avengers ID card go off. It was Tony. "What's going on?" I heard his voice through the card. "There's massive spikes of electric activity going on in downtown Manhattan. What's going on?" "I'm taking care of it Tony." I said then I hung up. I noticed the lightning storm stopped for a second, so I jumped to the top of the billboard. "He disappeared? Great…"

The next morning, I was in the university lunchroom when Gwen walked up and told me about an accident at the lab we were at the other night. "Been there, done that." I said to her. That was a pleasant time. "Wait… that doesn't sound good. What happened?" I said again after figuring out what she was talking about. "There was an accident involving the eels Eddie and Dr. Conners were telling us about." She replied. "Oh no, is everyone all right?" I asked her. "Eddie and Dr. Conners are, but Eddie told me Max, the guy who was working on the filters, wasn't so lucky… he made it, but he had to wear this weird suit, and he escaped from the hospital a few nights ago." "Oh no…" I said out loud. "Scorpio fought a guy using electricity last night wearing a funky suit too. Was that Max? Great…"

Later in the day, I was at the lab with Eddie studying the eels. I was getting views from all angles of the aquarium, including hanging upside down like a yoyo by a web, then getting back down on the ground seconds before Eddie came back in. "You're really getting into the whole thing with the eels, aren't you Jake?" He asked me. "What? Oh, yeah. More or less." I responded as Gwen walked in. "I'm just trying to figure out a way to counter the bioelectricity. In case the eels somehow usurp control of the lab and decide to take it over." Gwen giggled and Eddie just grinned. "Smart." He said. "But eels adapted to water, not Max.

I was about to walk over to Dr. Conners' lab when there was a bit of a power outage. "Is this normal?" I asked, but then the spider sense buzzed in my head and a big blast of electricity busted down the door and was replaced by Lightning Butt. "That's what I was afraid of… Eddie, get Gwen out of here! I'll stall Lightning Bulb." Eddie picked up Gwen and ran out the door. "Where's Conners?" He demanded. "Dr. Conners? What does he…" I had a thought and turned to the eels. "The bioelectricity." "Max," I turned towards Dr. Conners' voice and saw him put a gun on the desk. "I'm right here. Try to stay calm." "CALM? WE LEFT CALM BEHIND A LIFETIME AGO! I can't take it anymore…! You caused this… you cure it!" He demanded. "A cure…?" I turned towards the bioelectric filters Max was installing a few days ago. "I think I can cure you Max!" I said to him. "You shut up!" He said to me and shot a lightning bolt at me and threw me up against the aquarium, cracking the glass a bit and knocking me out.

"We're working on a cure right now, Max. We just need time." Said Dr. Conners. "I don't have time! Cure me now! Before I really get upset!" I regained consciousness and shot a web up at the crack in the aquarium and ducked behind a wall. "Time to get a little more comfortable." I said to myself as I got into my Scorpio costume. "I know you can do it doc!" I got to the roof of the lab in time to see Electro throw the desk off to the side. "He's right, we all just need to take a deep breath and calm down." He shot another bolt of lightning at me, which I dodged. "Look, I'm really sorry about before, and I really do wanna help now. I'm sure we can all find a cure for you." I held my hand out as a sign of peace. He shocked me as a sign of hostility and I was launched back into the remains of the desk. "Yeah… I deserved that. Ow…" "None of you get it! Without a cure, I'm not Max Dillon! I'm Electro!" He shouted. "Oh crap."

He started firing off lightning bolts all around the lab, one of which hit the weird tool Dr. Conners put on the desk when he tried talking to Max, and I was having a hard time dodging them all. I had to escape towards the roof, but Max caught me with a big bolt of lightning again, which made me fall onto another desk below. Dr. Conners was able to escape, which gave me a good window to block the doorway with plenty of webs. "No… he's gone! My one chance at a cure… GONE!" He turned towards me again. "You let him escape!" He rushed towards me and tried tackling me, but I jumped from the desk I was perched on, and he runs into all the chemical stuff sitting behind me, which exploded into flames and tossed me right onto the webs I threw onto the doorway. "That's it… the gloves are off!" "Oh… crap…"

He just launched a HUGE bolt of lightning at me, and threw me out into the campus. "Okay… THAT stung…" There was a student standing behind the electrical tower, and Electro shot a bolt of lightning at him. "NO!" I threw myself in the path and took the full force of the blast. "R-run kid!" I told him, and he ran away. "Okay… time to assess this whole situation…" I looked around. "No…" I started to lose balance. "Nobody to get hurt…" I stared down Electro who was just raring to kill me. "Just me and you now, Electro." I got my second wind. "Let's dance!" I shot two webs out to his sides as sort of a slingshot, and shot myself towards him, and kicked him in the chest, landing in the spot he was in.

I tried to reason with him again. "Max, please calm down!" I said to him. "I told you before… there IS no Max anymore! I am now Electro!" He shouted and shot another big blast of lightning at me, launching me into the electric tower. "Aargh… no more reasoning with him now." "Climbing a metal tower isn't such a bright idea, Scorpio!" He launched himself from the ground and into the tower, which lit up like a Christmas tree. I had to jump into the center of the tower and shoot a web up to the top. I heard my Avengers ID card go off again. "Not now… what Tony?" "My armor is reading massive electrical spikes all over one spot again." He said to me. "It's alright, I have this handled!" I stuck the card back in my suit and started planning.

"Okay, now with the metal parts of the tower all electrified…" "Thanks to me." Electro interrupted. "I can wait all night long here." "I'm staring down the world's biggest night light… hanging like a booger in a radio tower… I need a plan…" He started climbing up the tower now. "The itsy bitsy spider's gonna get zapped by the world's biggest night light!" He called out while he was climbing up the tower. "Oh crap…!" He got to one of the letters hanging on the tower, which surged to the topmost letter. It lost whatever grip it had on the tower, then fell to the pool in the university below. "Water… that's it!" I said out loud. "Okay lightning bulb, let's dance!" I called out. I got out of the tower, swung around it, then kicked Electro off the tower and into the pool, which exploded like a volcano. He lay in there, unconscious.

The next morning, I caught up with Gwen and MJ. "Jake, are you alright?" Gwen asked me. "Alright? What happened?" MJ asked Gwen. "Well…" I started. "I got into a bit of a scrap with another baddie." "You heard about the accident right, MJ?" Gwen asked her. "I think so. A guy's electrolytes overpowered him and he needed to wear a special suit to help him, right?" She asked. "Not exactly…" She said. "Max Dillon was an unfortunate victim of workplace negligence." I added. "I went in to try and talk to him, but he wouldn't hear me. I'm sorry Gwen, but he trashed the science lab." I told her apologetically. "Oh who cares?" She replied. "At least your safe." MJ added. "What'd you do anyway?" Gwen asked. "Remember when Eddie said Max shouldn't go near water until there's a cure for him? I had to knock him into the university pool. When I went to check on him, he was gone. I asked the police, and they said there wasn't anybody in there." I said. "That… doesn't sound good." MJ added.

Some time later, I had to beg JARVIS to let me call Karen again. "Karen, hey, it's Jake." I said to her. "I may not be able to come back as soon as I hoped. Scorpio's needed here for a while, so as soon as I know that this dimension's safe enough without me, I'll come back to Metropolis. Until then… I love you." I hung up. "Thanks again JARVIS." I said, then fell asleep on the couch.


	26. Total Recall

Scorpion Warrior

Chapter 26

"As you guys know, I've been gone for about two months, I think." I said. Everybody from the Justice League to Batman's covert ops team were all there. Superboy, who decided to take up the name Conner Kent, asked me what I was doing, so I told them all about the Avengers. "One's an archer, Hawkeye, who's just as good as Green Arrow and Artemis, if not better. Iron Man, whose suit of armor can put Batman to shame," I caught Bats squinting at me which caused me to gulp in nervousness. "No… no offense Bats. Dr. Bruce Banner was shot with quite a bit of gamma radiation, causing him to turn into a big green monster called the Hulk whenever his pulse races, whether in anger, or by adrenaline. Captain America, The First Avenger. Thor, God of Thunder. He has a hammer that can only be wielded by those deemed worthy to wield it. It may seem like an ordinary hammer, but not even Hulk can lift it. I don't even know if Superman can lift it."

Everybody seemed impressed. Why wouldn't they? "Then there's also Ms. Marvel. She's not like Captain Marvel. I don't know how to describe her, I've only seen her in action like one time. And then there's Jan van Dyne and her boyfriend, Dr. Hank Pym. Hank invented something he called Pym particles. It can either shrink him down to a size just a little smaller than an ant, or as big as Booster Gold's ego. And Jan can shrink herself down to the size of a wasp, which earned her the name Wasp."

I told them about who else I met there. "Mary Jane Watson's a redhead, who's actually pretty cool." Karen gave me a look. "Her friend, Gwen, actually looks a bit like you." I said to her. I told them about Eddie Brock and Dr. Conners. "How do we know you aren't making this up?" Conner asked me. Without saying anything, I raised my hand up to the ceiling and pressed my middle and ring fingers into my palm, shooting out a web while looking at him with a smirk. "That answer your question, buddy boy?" Everybody looked at me with awe. Karen pulled on the web, which wouldn't come down. "Told you guys I wasn't making any of this up. I have powers from both universes now. This is an entirely new Scorpio."

Avengers Universe

Not even two weeks in

It's been a few days since the incident with Electro. It was quiet around the city, so I go swinging around on patrol since, well, I can't fly, right? So, I hear this bank alarm go off and there's a guy down there who's somehow flipping cop cars by pointing at them. I land on the wall of the bank and try to get his attention. "Hey Vibrator-Lad, up here. Wanna talk?" I say to him. He comes back and says "Get outta here Boy Scout." "I'm offended. I was in the boy scouts in second grade." I said to him after flipping in front of him; I love doing that. I might ditch the flight for that. Anyway, I tell him he needs to apologize to the police and the people in the bank. He "apologizes" by launching me into one of the cop cars. I stop by the doctor later on the guise of a schoolyard brawl and he tells me that I had a couple broken ribs and a sprained wrist.

So, I'm hurting there once I climb from the cruiser. But, being the determined hero that I am, I couldn't help but let the pain go through. I mean, I was holding onto my wrist in pain. It hurt. And I wasn't even two weeks into the universe. My dad told me that some spiders have a precognitive ability called a spider sense. I have the abilities of a spider, which included the spider sense, and it was buzzing like crazy. My ribs were hurting just as bad, so I couldn't jump as good as a spider can, and I caught a tell in what he does. It turns out that he points at what he's about to attack, so I shot some web balls at his hands. That worked. He was actually about to attack when I did that. Those shockwave emitters on his hands actually backfired and shot him back into the bank.

Justice League Universe

Present

"So, I took out Shocker, he called himself and prevented anymore damage from being caused." I rested a hand over my chest. "My ribs still sorta hurt." "I have a question." Robin asked me. "Shoot." I replied. "How do you make the webs that shoot out of your wrist?" "Wrists." I corrected him. "The webs come out of both of my wrists." "So how does it work?" He asked me again. "I asked Dr. Banner that exact same thing when he wasn't the Hulk." "And?" "He asked me to go ask Hank." I replied quickly. "You gotta leave the jokes to the fast ones kid." Flash said. "Anyway, I went to Hank and he said that my body is actually organically creating it. I guess, when I hopped over to that universe, I lost my kryptonite enhanced powers and my body started making the webbing to compensate. That's what I got out of that."

Avengers Universe

Two and a half weeks in

Along with the webbing and the spider powers, I must've also gotten a whole new healing ability cause the sprain healed almost a week after the shocker deal… just in time to see a guy dressed up as a bird carrying off Norman Osborn, the guy I mentioned during the whole Octavius ordeal. I run into an alley to get Scorpio ready for action. So then I'm chasing them all the way through downtown New York. This vulture guy is too fast for me. It looks like I get close, he speeds up. I shoot a web out at them, the guy dodges it. So then I'm starting to run out of steam cause my wrist is fresh out of the healing stage, but I don't give up. But he's too far out ahead of me, and the guy drops Osborn! The guy freaking DROPS another human. I don't know what Osborn did to him, but I'm not sure it justifies DROPPING him. I get to him just in time to save him from becoming a pancake, catching him with my bad hand. I almost dropped him after that, but I readjusted him to my shoulder.

He must've recognized me cause after I caught him, he says "I know who you are. You're the guy from Dr. Octavius's lab." I thought he was gonna chew me out for ruining his reputation, but he says, "Thank you for saving everybody. And me, twice apparently." I'm not used to carrying anybody without my kryptonite powers, so I'm struggling to figure it out while being chased by said guy in the bird costume.

He gets the drop on me and kicks me right in the back. Norman and I are both falling, so I grab him with a web and shoot another one up to a building and gently let him down the ground. Vulture dude kicks me into the building. I wish I could say it wasn't empty, but I'm glad to say nobody was hurt. "Okay buddy, wanna dance?" I say to him all threateningly and stuff. He grabs me with his foot and slams me into another floor. I run out after him and try to tackle him but he flies up and I just run out right to midair.

I shoot a web up to the building again, which he cuts. I do it again, he does it again. And again. At this point, I'm really wishing I could fly. I'm falling, obviously knowing that he could slice the webbing. I try shooting it somewhere where he couldn't cut it, he shoots a feather at it. I had to admit, that was a pretty good shot. So instead of shooting up, I shoot a big hammock across two buildings, which catches me inches above the ground. I look up to see him fly away.

Justice League Universe

"There was no way I was gonna be able to catch up to him. He beat me."

Marvel Universe

Beginning of the second month

Eddie Brock's lab

That was one of the weaker ones. This next one might rank a full 10 on the villain scale. So, Eddie and I have been pretty chummy lately the next couple weeks or so. I think he figured it was okay that he showed me this black… ooze that he said his and a friend of his' parents were working on before they died. The parents… not him and his friend. "What's with the black ooze?" I asked him after he showed me what it was. He told me that the ooze was actually a suit designed to protect the wearer from internal and external harm. "That's all? Kind of overhyping the suit there then, right Eddie?" As you can tell… sometimes I don't think about what I say. "That's not the only thing, smartass." I smirked at him. "So what else does it do, Dr. Brock?" "It's the cure for cancer."

Justice League Universe

Everybody was staring at me in awe. But I was looking a little down. "That's amazing!" Said Robin. "Just think of the advances in medical research that could accomplish!" Megan must've noticed my face. "Is something wrong Jake?" "The suit… it was a monster."

Avengers Universe

Later that night, I snuck into the lab to try just a little bit of the suit. A little drop gets on me and overtakes me in seconds. The next part was the scariest because I couldn't see… couldn't breathe… but then… I could. I could breathe. I could see again. I felt like I was unstoppable. I was on the roof faster than the suit latched itself onto me. And then… the suit found the Vulture. It must've felt my unconscious feelings for him because the suit went on autopilot. It threw my hand out and a big… long tentacle thing flies out from the top of the wrist and latches itself onto his ankle. Before any of us knew what happened, the suit transformed… into a monster. Big gaping jaws swallowed the Vulture whole and spit him back out… lifeless… dead.

"Oh my god!" I was able to regain my senses and started to battle the suit for control. It was no use, I couldn't get out of it. I was clawing at the face, trying to pull it off. But it kept reforming itself faster than I could get the pieces off. It takes me off the side of the building and we land on a car on the street below. Two or three other cars' alarms that went off. Never before have I heard a noise so loud. I was clawing at my face again but this time, I was getting some pieces off and the suit wasn't reforming.

But it wasn't enough. I needed a lot more sound. The car alarms must've stunned the suit because I took off running to the nearest church. I got there just in time to know that the suit was taking over again. I was climbing up the side of the church, actually praying, for the first time in my life, that I would make it out of the situation. I got to the belfry and there it was: the church bell. I felt the suit retaking control of me but I was losing the struggle. I guess the suit must've thought banging me against the bell would knock me out, but the bell just started ringing. It was louder than anything I've ever heard before. My head would throb every time the bell would ring, but it was working. I was regaining control over the suit! Eventually, I got the suit completely off and I just kept ringing the bell in revenge for making me kill the Vulture.

Justice League Universe

"It turns out that Adrian Toomes, the Vulture, had a fatal heart attack before the suit devoured him. I'm not sure if I saved him or not." "How is a heart attack a good thing?" Artemis asked. "I'm not saying it is, but given the circumstances, I'm just glad his heart gave out instead of me being the one to take his life." Conner was looking at me. "I'm not saying that heart attacks are good, but… well, you get what I mean, right?"

Avengers Universe

Well… Eddie found out what I did and ended our friendship. Sometime later, a bunch of the people I fought throughout my time in that universe banded together and ganged up on me in the middle of Central Park: the Rhino, Sandman, Electro, Dr. Octopus, Shocker, and Eddie Brock, who bonded with the suit, and Norman Osborn as their leader.

Justice League Universe

"The guy you took the time to save turns on you and leads a group to kick your ass? Some gratitude." Said Green Arrow. "They kicked my ass alright. It was embarrassing. Eddie, or Venom as I decided to call the suit, was about to deal the final blow…"

Avengers Universe

Until none other than Iron Man comes and blasts Venom apart, while leaving the host safe. That gave me the courage and, dare I say Green Lantern, the will to stand up to the rest of the group, but it still wasn't enough. I couldn't keep up with the rest of the Sinisters. "Tony get out of here! Electro can seriously hurt you!" Octavius, who decided to take up the name Dr. Octopus, got his tentacles back and was holding me by the wrists so I couldn't shoot any webs.

Justice League Universe

I held Karen's wrists in the same fashion that Octavius did for me. "I thought I was done for, but Captain America's shield comes in and slices the top tentacles, allowing me to web up the bottom two and knock him out."

Avengers Universe

Unfortunately, Sandman was still there, and he formed his hand into a giant fist which pounded me into the ground. Cap runs in and grabs his shield just as Sandy's about to pound him into a crater. He tries flinging it at Sandy, but it doesn't work. Being made of living sand, he caught the shield and basically absorbed it into himself. Don't ask me how, I can't explain. So, there's Cap, defenseless. Electro's about to zap him. I shove him out of the way and I get caught in the attack. Shocker comes around and blasts me with that thing he used the last time. That gave me a big headache.

Justice League Universe

"Then an arrow flies through the air and hits the ground between Shocker and Electro, and explodes, launching us all back and Sandman lost his grip on Cap's shield. I snag it with a web and pull it out of Sandy then toss it back to Cap. I tell them that I can take out the Rhino and stand back. Rhino's rushing towards me with his horn down, and I leap onto his back. Turns out, he's a robot, cause I punched into a part of the suit and pulled out a bunch of wires." I said.

Avengers Universe

I thought we won. That is until my spider sense went off like crazy. This green skinned ogre looking creature lands behind me, almost gives me a heart attack myself. I was launched backwards flat on my back from the shockwaves of this goblin freak landing. His whole hand lights on fire and he tries to slam it into me, but I snag my webs on a couple trees and pull myself out of the way before the goblin thing got a chance to pound me into the dirt.

Justice League Universe

"The fight was longer than the story. I mean, I won, but we fought so hard, I had to stay in the hospital for the next few weeks under the guise of getting hit by a car." I said "I mean, I had two broken ribs, two other cracked ones and a bruised rib, a broken foot, and a broken leg. If it wasn't for that universe's new healing factor, I might've been there for months instead of weeks."

Avengers Universe

Three weeks of hospitality later

In front of the Avengers Mansion

"Well son, it was quite an adventure," Said Captain America. "I hope you come back to visit us again soon." Wasp added. "It was fun fighting alongside you, but I don't think I might be able to come back." I said. Wasp groaned and gave me a hug, and so did Gwen and Mary Jane. Then Cap gave me a weird blue cube in a tube called the Tessaract, and me, Hawkeye, and Tony all warped back to my apartment.

Justice League Universe

45 minutes ago

"Pretty nice place you got, Jake." Said Hawkeye. "This is it…" I said. I was trying to keep my excitement down… "I'm back!" Sadly… no such luck. "Jake," Hawkeye said to me. "I want you to have this." "Clint… this is your bow." I said to him. "Yeah… but I want you to have it. Think of it as a parting gift, from one teammate to another." "Wow… thanks Clint." Tony handed me a picture of all of us: me and the Avengers and Bruce Banner. "I had JARVIS take this special. To remember us all by." "What about the Avengers ID card?" I asked him. He smiled and replied with, "Keep it. As a souvenir."

Justice League Universe

Present

"And that's the story behind the bow, the Avengers ID card, the picture of all of us together, and why I was gone for two months." I said while pulling the bowstring back. "And what an adventure it was."


	27. A Blast from the Past

Scorpion Warrior

Chapter 27

Blast from the Past

Throughout the week after returning to my own universe, my body's been feeling like it went through the wringer. But the weird thing is, it only happens on and off. The first time it happened, I was all but on my knees begging Perry White for my old job back, and when he finally did, it felt like my stomach was bathing in Metallo's "stomach" acid. Anyway, Robin thinks it's because the two sets of powers from the two universes I've been in are having their own little fight and trying to overpower each other. But lately, it feels like the other universe's powers were winning; I've slowly been losing my original powers, except, strangely, my powers involving absorbing Kryptonite. As soon as the rumble in the jungle had a winner, I returned to work and noticed a blonde woman sitting at my desk.

"Uh… hi?" I said to her. She looked at me. "Can I help you?" I laughed a little. "You're uh… at my desk," I said to her. "Jake Smith. Nice to meet you Miss…?" "Sullivan. Chloe Sullivan. And… your desk is down in the bullpen."

"Back in the bullpen, Perry?" After what Chloe said sunk in, I confronted Perry. "I thought you said you'd give me my old job back." "I did give you your OLD job back." He quipped. "Yeah, old as in the job I wasn't able to do here for 2 months for being away." I came back at him. For being told I was back in the armpit of the Daily Planet, I wasn't as angry as I thought I was. In fact, I was sort of calm. Well, as calm as I could get. I'm just glad my powers decided to sort out their differences and be friends. "Well I meant old job as in an old pal type of old. You're lucky you get that back. Your stuff's already at your old desk. Do as good a job as you did when you were up here, and I'll let you back here in say… 5 months." I sighed, defeated. He was right. He's the boss, and he could always not give me my job back. Instead, he's letting me back in and I should be glad for that. There was a strange flash of black outside the window, but I ignored it.

I was on my way to the elevator when Chloe caught up to me. "You don't have to apologize for taking my job, Chloe. Perry explained it all and… well you WERE here before me." She laughed a little. "That's not it." I got in the elevator and she followed. I looked at her a little confused. "How much do you know…?" I asked her, a little suspicious. All she said was "The Justice League" and the elevator opened with Clark there to welcome me back to the bullpen. I asked him about Chloe when I got back to my old desk and he told me that she knows about everyone in the Justice League and that she was an occasional member in the past.

Anyway, that happened. I got demoted. Unfortunately… so did my paycheck. So I had to move back in with my dad.

Two days later, throughout which I've been seeing that same weird flash every so often, I was up at the Tech Wing of the Watchtower training with my new powers and Batman walked into the room. "Your form's off." He said to me, I didn't even realize he was there. "So if the spider sense alerts me to danger, why it tell me you were here?" I joked. "Anyway, what brings you to this neck of the woods?" "Shouldn't I be asking you that?" He asked me. "I'm not Superman anymore. I think I lost his powers after I came back from the other universe. So I've been trying to adapt a new fighting style." "Let's see how you do." He said to me. The training robots restarted and I showed him my new fighting style. After I beat all the big, bad bots, he came up to me and gave me a compliment, though subtly masked. "Not bad," He said. "But it won't get you far in a big battle against someone like Metallo." "Which is why I plan on avoiding A-listers like Metallo until I get at least one of Superman's powers back."

The next day, I was resting on my dad's couch when he asked me, "So when do you think you'll get your other job back?" "Who knows." I shrugged. "I might even look for another job that uses my skills with editing. That time spent in the other universe took away from my job at the Planet anyway." Then I saw that same black flash go by the window. That got me suspicious, as my dad also pointed it out as well, so I went up to the window wondering what that was. "Now that I think about it, I haven't seen Barry for a week-and-a-half." I was halfway out the window, clinging to the wall, looking for that weird flash… and then the spider sense buzzed. "Oh no."

I guess it found me because the next thing I know, something wraps around my neck, pulls me out of the apartment, and slams me into the wall and back into my apartment. My dad tried shooting it with his gun, but the thing just absorbed the bullets. Then, it launched what looked like a tentacle at him and launched him into the door, knocking him out. "DAD!" I rushed over to him and tried waking him up, but another tentacle thing grabbed my ankle and threw me into the wall of the building across the street.

"Hello, Scorpio." I then recognized it. It was the Venom suit from the other universe. "**Eddie?** **What are you doing?**" It looked like it was about to chomp on my face until it stopped. "J… Jake! Save me!" I heard a familiar voice say. "**Barry?**" I called out. Venom was about to make an hors d'oeuvre out of my face again, but I broke free from the wall and gave it a hard right hook to the jaw, sending him spiraling to the ground, but I caught him a couple strings of web before he went splat.

I trapped him on the wall with a few webs before I leaped back into the apartment and changed into my costume, adding the final touch that separates me from Scorpio: gelling my hair and making it into a Caesar 'do before slingshotting out of the hole in the apartment wall and kicking Venom right in the gut. "Oh please don't remember this Barry…" I was about to slug Venom in the jaw again when my spider sense went off. I leapt from the building just when the symbiote launched a bunch of spikes from its chest. "Well that's new."

I noticed there wasn't a crowd below, so they all must've fled some time ago. "Good… nobody's in danger." I looked to the Venom suit, who stared right back at me. "Barry! Fight it! Fight the suit!" "Sorry, Scorpio. Looks like your little buddy here's all mine now!" Did the suit get smarter? "I fought for my sanity, and so can Barry!"

He must've heard me because Venom was about to attack me but he hesitated. He started grabbing his head. He must've lost whatever grip he had on the building because he fell from the building. So I shot some more webs to catch him before he went splat. But then the spider sense went off and he whipped a tentacle at me and smacked me into next week. I practically felt like I was knocked out and woke up a week later, good thing I wasn't thought. But he did catch up to me, catching me… again… and throwing me into a building… again. I was just barely starting to fall unconscious while Venom formed a spike in his hand.

With blood dripping from my mouth, my back feeling like it was given a back massage by Ultraman, and a broken ankle, I tried to make one last effort to Flash to escape. "Barry… if you can hear me… I'm sorry I couldn't save you…" Venom was about to shish kebab my head, but stopped at the last second. He looked like he was having a battle in his own head. He lost his grip on my arms and legs and fell down to the ground… again. So I had to catch him with some webs… again. My ankle was killing me, though, and my spine felt like it was ready to give any second, so I had to make this quick.

While he was distracted, I got him wrapped up in my webbing and started swinging around town for a church. I must've swung around for five minutes before remembering that all the churches in Metropolis don't have those big church bells that I used to get the symbiote off of me when I was in that other universe. "Jake listen!" Barry's pulling through! "Jake… I've worked with… something similar to this thing! It's also weakened by electricity! Hurry, it's… it's starting to take over again!" "Got it! Let's see… power plants… electrical stations… crap!" I couldn't think of a single place I could go to zap Venom.

I landed on the wall of another building and called the Justice League on my comm link. "This is Jake Smith requesting immediate emergency warp to the Watchtower's reactor core!" I heard Bruce's voice. "Why do you need the reactor core?" "I found the Flash! He's been taken over by a weird suit I encountered in the other universe and he's trying to stall the suit so I can finish it off. I need to get there, now!" In seconds, I found myself in front of the reactor core. I shot webs at both entrances and reinforced them enough so that Batman would have a hard time getting through without Superman. And speak of the devil.

"Jake, what do you need to do here?" I pulled my mask down from my face and pointed at Venom, who just started to stir. "Flash is in there." He shot a tentacle at me, which I sidestepped and grabbed. Then I threw him towards one of the windows, which just cracked, and I shot some more webs at him to trap him. Once I thought that Venom couldn't escape, I tore down the barriers I put up earlier, all the while occasionally shooting webs at Venom to keep him occupied.

"How thick is the reactor core glass?" I asked Batman. "Impenetrable." He replied. "Crap. Now what?" "Jake!" "Flash?" Batman and I said at the same time. "The… hangar! Throw me… out into space!" Then he was lost to the Venom, until I had a thought. But I needed to be very careful and time this perfectly. He was starting to break free, thought, so I shot some more webbing at him. "Batman, do you have a high pitched sonic generator?" "What do you need it for?" He responded.

While still keeping my wrists pointed at Venom, I explained my plan. "Flash mentioned the hanger," I shot some more webbing at Venom as he started to bust out again. "Your sonic generator isn't as powerful as a church bell, but this should work so I can save both Flash and the rest of the League." "You'll have to explain yourself after all this is over." Batman said while taking out one of his batarangs. "You'll get a full debriefing when this works." I started inching towards the symbiote. "Now, I need you to throw that thing at the symbiote. It won't stun him for long, so I need to time it just right for this to work. If this works, there should be a window for me to snag Flash and pull him out." I wait for when Venom started to break free of the webs again. "Now!" Batman threw the batarang at the symbiote just as the last of the webbing broke free.

The symbiote looked like it was spazzing out. The plan worked better than I thought it would. The head spazzed a whole lot more than usual, exposing Barry's head. So I put the next part of my plan into action. While Venom was acting like a preppie at a death metal concert, I snagged Barry's head with one of my webs and pulled, but the symbiote had a tighter grip than I imagined. "Oh crap!" I couldn't get him out of there. So I had to get in closer and pull Flash out myself. Which, fortunately, worked. Except that the symbiote grabbed me when I tossed Flash to Batman. Venom overtook me within seconds; it's manipulative voice already attempting to control me. But this time around, I had the advantage. I already experienced the symbiote suit already, so I was fighting. But losing horribly. So I had to act quickly.

In the moments of sanity I was able to muster, I stumbled like a drunk idiot to the hangar bay while fighting for control over my own body. I was able to break free of the symbiote's control long enough to open the airlock. I ripped the symbiote's hand off of my own while I was being pulled out into space. But I shot a web back into the hangar and pulled myself and the symbiote back in. As soon as I got back to the hangar control system, I grabbed the guardrails and waited for the vacuum to do its job. It took a while and most of my strength, but, little by little, the symbiote, Venom, was finally gone. Sapped of my strength, I passed out.

The next day, I woke up in the hospital wing of the Watchtower again, but this time, I was in a bed. And I was surrounded by Superman, Batman, and the Flash. "Hey, look who's back in the Land of the Living." I was more exhausted than my dad after a long day. I just groaned out a "Wha happened…?" "Well, after you rescued me, you passed out and woke up 250 years into the future. Everybody on the Watchtower was cryogenically frozen and reawakened just for this moment." Flash joked. I fell back in the bed and tried rubbing the grogginess out of my face. "Bats, why haven't you head slapped him yet?" "Cause even he can find the Flash annoyingly funny sometimes." Said Superman. Batman gave Flash a head slap.

"Thank you. Anyway, what happened?" I asked again. "Well, after you passed out after saving Flash…" Clark started. "Your new super sticky powers must've failed you cause you were almost halfway out into space when Superman saved you." Said Flash, actually being just a little more serious. "Super… sticky powers?" Clark asked in confusion. "I thought you had most of my powers." "Did." Said Flash. "I am a spider now." I said, then sat up. "Bats, rain check on the debrief, and Clark, I'll explain everything later. Which reminds me: Flash, you gotta say what happened."

"Oh, THAT reminds ME: Batman wanted to say something to you." Clark said. But Batman walked out. "Well…" Flash coughed out awkwardly. "He wanted you to know that, in your few short years as being a hero here, you've made quite a name for yourself. You've impressed him quite enough, with your plan for saving Flash here, and for recent episodes, you impressed him enough to make him recognize you." I thrust my arms up in victory. "My life's dream has been accomplished. I can now retire happily and continue my job as a bullpen editor." I said to Clark as obvious as possible. "Right… maybe I can talk to the Chief about that." Then he and Flash left me alone in the room. Even though he won't admit it, Bruce Wayne, The Batman, actually recognizes my efforts.

The next day, I was on the roof of the Daily Planet after visiting my dad in the hospital thinking about the events of yesterday. 'Should I just stop being Scorpio? Maybe Zatanna can still whip up a spell to take these powers away…' Then my thoughts popped back to the venom suit's attack. 'I gotta tell Tony about a leak between our universes. I doubt the Avengers ID card works in this universe though.' But then I see a plane that looks like one from WWI appear out of nowhere. Then another from what looks like a decade or two after the Wright Brothers. "Is there an air show going on?" 'I should grab my camera for the paper.' I turned around but saw a hologram of Tony in his Iron Man armor. "Tony, speak of the devil. I need to talk to you about something."

But he was ignoring me, but then said something confusing and distressing. "Scorpio… this is an emergency message from the Avengers. If you're seeing this… that means we're dead."

"**WHAT?**"


	28. Preasant Surprise

Scorpion Warrior

Chapter 28

A Preasant Surprise?

"Hello Scorpio, if you're seeing this, that means we're dead."

(Yeah… that was a shock… So there I was two minutes ago, hanging out on the roof of the Daily Planet after visiting my dad in the hospital. He's fine, by the way. He just has a concussion and a slipped disc. Anyway, there was something that looked like a WWI plane come out of nowhere, so I go to grab my camera for an air show. I turn around, and a holo-message from Tony Stark, the guy I met from when I was in the Avengers' universe, appears and tells me he's dead. The just as confusing part is that mine and his universes are supposed to be totally separate, right? So how'd a holographic version of him appear in front of me? A hero from the Justice League universe?)

"T-Tony?" I ask the hologram. But the hologram ignored me and continued. "But the world will always need heroes, so I put together a failsafe program, if anything ever happened to us." Iron Hologram then continued to say that I've proven myself a hero on many occasions and that I can be an Avenger. "I thought I already was." Then he finished by telling me that everything in the Avengers mansion is mine, and disappeared. I fell to my knees in shock. "Tony? The Hulk? Hawkeye? They're all dead?"

Then the more confusing part of the message snapped me out of my funk. 'But… how did it get here? And how do I get back over there?' I stood up and leaned on the railing. 'Should I try and rig one of the teleporters?' A bunch of screaming snapped me out of my daze as my Uncle Hal flew over in his Green Lantern uniform. "Jake, Scorpio's needed. For some reason there's a bunch of dinosaurs running around." I nodded then crawled down the side of the building, got out of my civilian clothes, and webbed them to the wall while I heard Hal remark about my new abilities.

"Alright, tell me where." He grabbed me with his solid light construct hand and flew us over to where he last saw one of the dinosaurs; more arrived and started chasing after a few people. So I snagged a couple of the dinosaurs, while Hal grabbed the last one with another hand. "I have to get me one of those rings." I said.

After a few more disasters were solved, Hal and I went up to the Watchtower to brainstorm. "So… a holographic version of this guy you met in the other universe came to you and told you that the real him and the rest of his team died and you have to go over to the other universe and help stop the crisis happening over there?" He asked me. "Yes. That's exactly what's happening." I told him. "I would not have believed you a week ago."

"I don't know how to get over to the other universe though. Last time I could fly and it was raining." I said. "This time, I can't fly now, and the weather forecast shows clear skies through next week. Hmm…" I started thinking about what to do. "Flash and I could probably rig one of the teleporters to warp you to the other universe." Hal said to me. "His and Wally's scientific backgrounds could help." I said to him. "And the power of the lantern can help power up the teleporter to make the jump." The plan was set and I went to grab Hawkeye's bow so I could use it as a sample that the teleporter can scan.

So they all went to work and the plan worked. I stepped into the teleporter and appeared back in the New York of the Avengers universe… staring right at a velociraptor. "Hi, you wouldn't happen to know what's going on, would you?" It chomped at me, so I did a kicking backflip right into it's jaw, landing like a ninja. "Hey ugly!" I was about to punch it again but I heard some growling voice off to the side, then saw someone wearing a yellow and black costume with a similar design to the orange and red-orange costume I wore before this one, but with a different mask. "You wanna take a bite out of someone? Try me."

It looks like it was made to look like he had mutton chops, and things around his eyes, I don't really know how to describe that. But the other thing is that he had knives popping out of his knuckles? "Uh…" That was all I could say before two more surrounded him and started circling him like vultures. Then he went apeshit on the dinos. "Uh… yeah, don't show mercy. Don't let them… y'know… repopulate their species or anything." I said to him. "Oh shove it. You know what's going on here kid?" He asked me. "Your guess is as good as mine." After I said that, another holographic Iron Man showed up and gave the same message it gave me back in Metropolis. "Oh yeah… that." I said to the guy that rekilled the dinosaurs.

"Oh yeah… I think that message talked about a New Avengers Initiative. Well, I'm already part of the Avengers anyway." He stared at me, chuckling a little, and said, "You? An Avenger? That's a good one." Yeah… I wish I brought the ID card for proof. What, is there a universe police? "Hello Scorpio, glad to know you're here again." I looked around wondering what that voice was. "I'm broadcasting on the same frequency that was developed to match the frequency of the spider sense." "I don't remember doing that…" "It was developed before you came here."

Some time later, me and Wolverine, as we introduced ourselves after I stopped having that mini spaz attack after knowing that JARVIS can talk to me in my own head, ended up in front of Tony's place of business, Stark Tower, along with some other guys: a guy with a bandana, glowing hands, and what looks like a tattoo on his chest; a bald dude wearing a vest and a black tank top; an orange boulder who should probably get ear replacement surgery; and one of Tony's associates, Colonel James Rhodes, who's piloting his own set of Iron Man armor.

I looked up towards Stark Tower and started wondering. "Whatever's going on in there… we gotta stop it. The world, and the fabric of time, is pretty much counting on us. So yeah, no pressure."

While we were walking through the hall, I gave everyone a debrief. "Okay, so while the fabric of space and time is coming apart at the seams and JARVIS, Tony's home computer butler, somehow got in my head by using these… spider tracer things that Spider-Man invented and told me that a Kang the Conqueror is attempting to bring his palace here from the 40th century and take over New York using Stark Tower as the base. Now that I say that out loud… that makes no sense at all, does it?" I asked everybody.

"Nope," Said Luke Cage, the bald dude in the vest. "But if Stark's counting on the six of us to bring Kang down, we're doomed." "Yeah, thanks for the vote of confidence there." I mumbled.

We ended up in the big arc reactor basement of Tony's office building and Kang was looking over the status of his citadel. "Hey Kang!" I called out. "If you're really from the future, you must know that we're going to stop you!" "Step away from the machine now, before we make you!" Said Rhodey. "Way to ruin my moment there, War Machine." I told him.

"Funny," Kang said with a chuckle. "You think yourselves the New Avengers?" "I don't think, I am! I am an Avenger!" I called out. "Well let me tell you about what history says of your little team here: NOTHING!" He said. Wolverine unsheathed his claws and challenged him. I tried calming him down and suggesting a plan, but Luke rudely interrupted me before I got a word out. "What for? What's he gonna do?" His question was answered right there when he got blasted. "I hope that answered your question Luke!" The Thing tried rushing him, but got blown back by Kang's energy blast too. "Sure… hey Iron Fist, wanna give rushing a try?" I asked sarcastically.

"No, we must wait and come up with a plan first." He told me, probably completely oblivious to my sarcasm, but actually making sense. "Well… I was being sarcastic there, but thank you for being the only other sensible one here." I was interrupted by one of War Machine's laser ammo hitting me and launching me into the wall. "Okay… ow…" The Thing tried rushing Kang… again… but Kang disappeared and was hit by one of War Machine's missiles, knocking him back into me. "Aw man! What, are we fighting ourselves? Ow…!" Kang reappeared behind Rhodey while he was looking for him and blasted him with one of his own lasers again… and he nearly crushed me again, but missed by a couple feet. "Okay seriously Kang, do you hate the color orange? Thing! He hates orange, sic him!"

I tried shooting some webbing Kang's way, but he moved it out of the way and wrapped up Wolverine by mistake. Then Iron Fist tried to strike Kang with his… iron fist but… he got blown back as well… and right into me. "That's it, once we save the world, I'm changing the color scheme."

Then Luke tried rushing him, but got hit by Kang's blast. But he didn't get thrown back, but Kang poured on the blast and caused an explosion, throwing everybody but me, Wolverine, and Kang out onto the street. I was doing all that I could do dodge his assaults, and when I got to Wolverine, I grabbed him and shot a web through the hole and back out onto the surface. "Do not go down there." I said when we landed.

Wolverine through my hand off him and got in my face. "I had him!" He growled at me in my face. "Can I make a couple suggestions?" I asked him. "Either brush your teeth, or eat a breath mint because you probably could've beaten Kang by breathing on him." I had to back down from this staring contest until Iron Fist pointed out what was going on with Stark Tower. "Uh… wasn't there a giant tower with Tony's name going down the side just a minute ago?" Thing asked. I just had a thought then. "Oh crap. Guys, if we don't hurry and stop Kang, whatever he did to the Avengers might happen to us. Now let's stop rushing at him like Juggernaut and actually come up with a plan!" I said to the other heroes.

I saw a whole bunch of alien ships appear out of nowhere. "Oh no…" I said again. "He's not just trying to take over the city, he's gonna try and take over the whole world." "Is that even possible?" Iron Fist asked. "Yes." I said. "I even stopped a plan like that once. Unfortunately, all the evidence burned up in the atmosphere, so the person who failed got off scot free."

"Listen up everybody," Said Luke. "We wanna take down Kang? How? He took us all down." "Especially since you guys kept trying to tackle him." I interrupted. "What I'm trying to say is, we CAN take him down. We just need to act like a team. Now, I think I have a plan, but I need time. And someone to get Kang off his high horse." I said. "I think I can take care of that." Said Rhodey.

He flew up, then drilled into the asphalt like there was no tomorrow, then a few moments later, appeared again on the other side of the asphalt. "Okay Thing, can you slingshot me into the arc reactor basement?" I asked the Thing. He agreed and I shot a web from each of my wrists at a couple walls. He pulled me back and launched me over to Stark Tower, or… soon to be Kang Citadel. I lowered myself from the ceiling with the web yoyo to the control panels. "Okay, JARVIS, you know how to shut this down?" I asked him. "No." He simply replied. "What? You could scan me and let me call my dad and my girlfriend, but you can't help me shut this down?" "Kang's technology is too advanced for me to comprehend." He told me. "Oh… why does that have to make sense?" "His technology seems to be run by Kang via thought, or some kind of intuition Tony was unaware of."

I was pacing back and forth to figure out a plan. "What if I started tearing this whole thing apart? No… then I wouldn't be able to stop Kang's plan." I noticed something that looked like a handle. 'Big power cells like this need handles so technicians can easily replace them once they run out of juice…' "I think the things with the handles are power cells. What if I pull those out? Will that work?" I asked. "Most likely." JARVIS replied. "Or it would explode." "Remind me not to ask you for advice for when I pick out my first couch." I told him. "Noted." He replied.

I heard explosions and other sounds outside, so it sounded like the others were stalling Kang. "So it's up to me to stop him…" 'Intuition…?' I walked over to one of the control panels and reached for the power cell, and my spider sense buzzed, which meant to not take that one out. "So that must mean…" I shot a web at the other one and pulled it out, causing the arc reactor to shut down. "I did it?" A holographic panel appeared in front of me and a weird voice asked if I wanted to intervene with some time shifts… "Duh." I pushed a button on the panel and everything returned to normal.

But Kang appeared in front of me and pointed a gun at me. "So, looks like nobody's gonna get to call you King Kang after all, eh?" He was about to shoot me, but I hopped up and clung to the ceiling. "Hey, don't you know it's not nice to play with guns?" I said to him. I was about to shoot a web at the gun's barrel but something hit him, and boy was I glad to know what that something was. Hawkeye, Thor, Iron Man, Wasp, Captain America, and Black Panther returned… along with some new recruits.

I shot another web out at the other control panel, pulling it out, and making Kang disappear into thin air. "What just happened?"

Some time later, Tony, Thor, Steve, and I all wound up on another rooftop. "It's good to know you guys are still alive." I told them. "But Luke Cage is billing you for his services." 'Some hero.'

The next day, Hawkeye, Tony, and I were holding onto the Tessaract again and we appeared in my dad's apartment, to see him alive and well, sitting at the table drinking a cup of coffee. "Dad! You're back!" I said to him. "He knows who you are?" Clint said to me. "Of course he does." I replied. "Dad, these are two of the heroes I worked with when I got stuck in the other universe, Tony Stark and Clint Barton, better known as Iron Man and Hawkeye. Guys, this is my dad: Michael Smith." I introduced everyone and Tony and Hawkeye were just about ready to leave before I stopped them.

"Tony, I need to talk to you about something involving the Venom from your universe, it got to my universe here." I told him. "I know." He replied. "How?" "JARVIS, the Avengers mansion, and Iron Man all picked it up. There's a breach in the spatial barrier separating our two universes starting when you appeared in our universe. Unfortunately, there's no way to seal it. So my advice? Stay on your toes. Because there's no telling what'll happen. Fortunately, scans indicate it won't do any residual damage, so you didn't screw up. Only whatever happens in one universe happens to the other now. Whether you like it or not, our scans are linked."

He then turned to my father and said, "Mr. Smith, you've raised a fine boy. Don't let him down." He and Clint then used the tessaract and went back to their own universe.

"Jake… there's uh… well, somebody was murdered while I was in the hospital and you were gone," My dad said to me. "And, considering I just got out and how well you did with your first murder case, as captain of the Metropolis Police Department, I'm assigning you to it." I just stood there in amazement at what I just said, then I grinned. "Thank you, dad. I won't let you down."


	29. Another Dangerous Rivalry

Scorpion Warrior

Chapter 29

An Impossible Mystery

With the Dynamic Duo busy in Gotham City and the rest of Batman's covert team not doing anything, I decided to take my dad up on the offer and investigate the case. So the first thing I did was get on my bike and ride over to the Metropolis Police Station… which embarrassed me when I got there since some of the guards decided to give me shit about riding a bike to a police station. "That's it, I'm getting a motorcycle after this."

So I was walking to my dad's office and walked in with one of the other detectives after me. "You must be Jake, I'm Detective Adam Blake." "Nice to meet you." I said shaking his hand. "Welcome to Metropolis PD. Don't mind the cops out front." I shrugged and started scanning my dad's desk. 'Better cross chief of police off my job search, messier than Grodd's cage.' "I've dealt with worse. Anyway, my dad put me on a case… where's the file…?" I was looking all over my dad's desk for almost a minute before I realized my dad's track record with keeping his desk clean, then I looked up at Adam. "You know my dad's cleaning habits, don't you?"

He laughed a little and showed me to a file room: open, closed, and cold cases. I sighed deep as one of the cold cases caught my eye: Since I had to keep my identity as Scorpio a secret, and since it was Bizarro who toasted Eric, that case had to stay cold. Adam showed me a file of my dad's open cases… or case, as the… case may be, pardon the expression. "This is a real interesting investigation. No prints anywhere. The murderer didn't even try to make the weapon even partially hidden." "Out in the open, huh?" I said out loud. "Yeah. I think your dad brought you on half 'cause of what happened to him last week, and half 'cause of how you did in your first case."

Ah yeah, my first mystery. Boy, no doubt about it, that was tough. But fun. I liked solving that case. "Yeah, now that you mention it… so what do we got?" I asked Detective Blake. "It's strange," He replied, feigning a look of confusion. It seemed like he was trying to hide something. I decided I'd keep an eye on him. "Dead body on the floor of the apartment. The murder weapon, which has no prints on it all, was fired."

On the way there, I started to get a sense of déjà vu. "Where did this murder take place exactly?" I asked him a little nervously. My question was answered as we pulled into a very familiar looking apartment complex. 'Oh crap!' I ran up the stairs to my dad's apartment. Soon as I got there, I practically kicked the door down. My dad was on the couch watching TV. "Geez Jake, what's with breaking the door down? Last time, it cost quite a lot to get it fixed." "Oh good, you're safe." I said, a little out of breath. "What are you talking about? And aren't you supposed to be solving a murder?" He asked me.

"That's kinda why we're here." Detective Blake said behind me. "Jake must've thought you were in trouble." "How could it have been me?" My dad asked me. "The murderer probably figured you were here and decided not to leave any witnesses?" I said matter-of-factly. "Jake… the victim is a few doors down." "They are?" My dad and I asked at the same time.

We all walked down to the victim's apartment to, surprisingly, find it neater than M'gann's room in Mt. Justice… except for a big, red, bloody stain on her door. Metropolis coroner already came and took the body of Sara Wilson back to the morgue, so me, Adam, and my dad all started looking around. "We found nothing at all except the scorch marks from the gun on the wall and the blood stain on the floor. Either this guy is just that good, or all he's guilty of is the gun." The chief investigator said to my dad.

I took a good look at the gun and asked Blake what type of gun it was. "It looks like a replica of an old 19th century derringer pistol." I looked at him with the same surprised look that I had when I first discovered my powers. "I'm a bit of a history buff. And a senior member of the Metropolis Gun Club." I looked towards the gun. 'Impressive.' "Very impressive. But this gun… it looks too familiar though." I caught the tone he used when he said very. 'Did he just read my mind?'

I didn't want to make a scene at a crime scene, so I just shrugged it off. So I turned back to him. "You say this gun looks familiar?" He didn't take his eyes off the gun, but he did reply with, "Yeah… I've never seen this particular gun in any store though." I stepped off to the side to give him some room to think, but a few moments later, he got my attention again. "Jake, I know where this gun's from." He took the gun from the wall and rush out the door, with me chasing after him.

We were driving along in the car. "So what's with the excitement." I asked him, hoping it would break the silence. "Not excitement, Jake. Determination. I finally remembered why the gun was familiar. Yesterday, a gun was taken from a gun club sometime after closing." "How ironic." I said sarcastically. 'I was in the other universe, that's why I didn't hear about it.'

Eventually, we arrived at the gun club and he rushed out the car and into the club. I followed him with the gun after regaining my senses. "Blake, you forgot the gun." I said to him once I got in there. "This is the gun that was taken the day before and used in a murder yesterday. We need to see your security cameras." "Yes sir, Detective Blake, right this way." The gun club owner took us both to the security office, and we saw the security tapes… at least, we would… if there was no snow there. 'Crap.'

"All units, all units, we have another dead body…" I heard Blake's radio go off and I heard a very familiar address. This time, though, it wasn't my dad's apartment. It was mine. It was the apartment I shared with Eric before what happened during the Bizarro incident. When we got there, Blake snapped me out of my trance. "Jake? You okay there, partner? I can send another team here if you'd like." I looked at him. "No, it's okay. I just haven't been here for about a month or so… come on, let's go."

We got up to the victim's apartment which, thankfully, wasn't my old one. This time, there was no present murder weapon, but there was blood smearing down the wall, with a bullet in the wall, which is what the CSI's gave to us, and a bullet hole in the wall and one of the windows. The victim was a male around 30 years old who didn't have his ID on him. "Good to see you again, Jake." The coroner said to me. I remembered him from the NASCAR case. I asked him to let us know when he gets a positive ID.

Unfortunately, since the coroner said he couldn't get a positive ID, and the CSI's couldn't get any other evidence other than the bullet, there wasn't anything else to do here, so Blake treated me to some lunch. "So tell me about your first case." Blake said.

Me: "Okay, so you heard of Freddie McGuire, right?"

Blake: "Yeah, it's a shame though, what happened to him. Well tell me about it."

Me: "Well, like this one, it was impossible case. A murder weapon, nowhere to be found. Hotter than hell in the locker room, and a water stain where he was slumping. So, what leaves water when it's left out?"

Blake: "Ice."

Me: "Right. Then I heard that one of the other racers took a trip to Alaska. Put two and two together, figured out the murderer was his rival in the league."

Blake: "Impressive." He looked around. "Didn't need to use SW then, did you?"

Me: Feigning a look of confusion, I innocently asked him, "SW?"

Blake: "Or is it Pisces, or Scorpio?"

Me: The fake look of confusion turned real, so I looked around to make sure nobody was listening. "How much do you know?"

Blake: "Oh please, I'm a detective. I heard about your accident four years ago in the newspaper, then SW came onto the scene."

Me: "Did you tell anybody?"

Blake: "No way. I'd have to tell someone of my own identity first."

He paid the bill and we went back to his cruiser. "What do you mean your own identity?" I asked him. "I have my own powers. Telepathy being one of them. I go by the handle Captain Comet."

"Adam, Jake, I got a positive ID on our John Doe." I heard the coroner say over Adam's radio. "That took a little longer than I thought." I said to myself. "Dental records and fingerprints DO tend to take quite a bit of time. Come to the morgue and I'll give you the information."

So at the morgue, I was talking to the coroner while Adam had some stuff he needed to do. "So, our John Doe's name is actually Jimmy Wilson, a policeman from Gotham City." It was at that point that Adam came around the corner and said, "So our murderer's a cop killer eh?" "I guess so. So what about the Jane Doe?" I asked the coroner. He looked at her sadly. "She's one of our own. A Metropolis special investigator. My theory is that she was investigating someone and got a little too far for his safety." He looked to Adam. "How good is your telepathy?" 'Huh?' "Can you scan memories of the dead?" Adam shook his head while I had a look of sheer confusion on my face. "Sorry," he replied. "I can't scan any memories after they're dead."

"Wait wait wait… he knows about you?" I asked Adam. "Of course. He's my brother." And that's when it clicked. "Oh." "He wasn't born with any powers like me though." Adam told me. I thought for a minute before I thought of someone. "I got a buddy who works as a GCPD detective." "A one Mason Dreiberg?" Adam said with a giggle. "That better not be a regular thing with you, Blake."

"Hey Mason, I need some help." I said to him after he picked up. "Oh, so the great Jake Smith needs help? Forget how to spell?" (Mason didn't know about Scorpio yet.) "No numbnuts, now listen. I need your help finding out about a Jimmy Wilson." I told him. "Jimmy Wilson, huh?" I heard him say. "All I know about him is that he's one of the corrupt cops. Why? What's wrong?" "He was a corrupt cop. He's dead now. Thanks Mason." I hung up and walked back into the morgue, telling Adam and his brother about what he told me. "Follow me Jake." Adam said.

We ended up back at Jimmy's apartment along with my dad, and I shot a web from the bullet hole in the window to the bullet hole in the wall outside the apartment. "You sure you should be showing off your powers like that Jake?" My dad asked. I knew what he was talking about. "Don't worry dad, Blake's a superhero too." My dad gave him the very same look he gave me when he first discovered my Scorpion Warrior activities. I stuck the other end of the webbing to my wrist and discovered some new developments in this "impossible" case. "Guys, I think I might've just made the impossible… possible."

About 20 minutes later, Adam, my dad, and I ended up on the rooftop where the web pointed to. Adam carried my dad and I ran a tightrope with my webbing. More specifically, it pointed us to a billboard. "My guess is that whoever shot the bullet was somewhere on the billboard." I was thinking out loud. "It's an impossible shot." I heard Adam say. "Nobody, not even a professionally trained assassin, could make this shot."

'Professional…' "I know somebody who could make a shot like that. I introduced you to him this morning, remember dad? Clint Barton." I said to him. "I remember him. But what about him? He's in the other universe." He responded. "That's not my point. But Hawkeye's a professional archer. He COULD make this shot. So I'm guessing that whoever killed Jimmy is a professional hitman… somebody Batman might deal with." 'I hope he's not busy.'

I dialed him up on my comm link. "Bats, you busy?" "Robin and I just got back to Gotham. What do you need?" Batman's voice came out as gruff as usual. "I need your World's-Greatest-Detective-ness right about now. I'm about 2 buildings east of Belfry Apartments, where Jimmy Wilson was killed." Almost immediately after I after I said that… "I'll be there in just a minute." And literally one minute later, he appeared a couple feet away from us. "Took your time Bats." I hope he took that as a joke.

"So have you collected any evidence?" Batman asked. "There were two murders, Batman." My dad said. "Well," He said with a grin. "Nice to see you Chief Smith." "Nothing's even gonna surprise me anymore after this." I said. "Anyway, both murders seem impossible. Which is why I asked for Jake to be brought on for the first one." Adam continued about the first murder. "In the first one, the only evidence was a replica 19th century derringer stolen from the Metropolis Gun Club. No prints or any other evidence was found at the scene."

"And even less found at the second murder." I looked towards Belfry Apartments. "Which is where I came in. The angle of the gunshot came from around here, but I believe it came from somewhere on the billboard." I climbed up one of the supports and tried as many sniper positions as I could remember. "Wait…" Batman said. "Try that second to last one again." I hung down from the balcony and started to assume a sniper position. "Oh no…" I heard him say. "Wanna share with the rest of the class Bats?"

"I know that sniper position." He said. "Jake, come with me. I'm taking over the investigation." I took my clothes off to reveal my Scorpio uniform and asked Adam to take my clothes and my dad back to his apartment. Batman's batplane showed up next to us, which surprised me. I got in after him and asked him what's going on. "Deadshot." He simply said. "Deadwho?" I asked. "Deadshot is one of Master Bruce's enemies, Master Jacob." The voice of Bruce Wayne's butler, Alfred, came up on the batplane's radio. Good thing I met him before going to the Avengers universe or I would've mistaken him for JARVIS.

"He's more than deadly with a sniper rifle." Batman continued. "So… World's Greatest Shot vs. World's Greatest Detective?" I asked. "More like World's Deadliest Assassin." Batman told me. "I found some possible locations as Deadshot's hiding places, but they are not exact." Said Alfred. "I'll get Robin and Scorpio to check out the other locations." Batman said to Alfred, then hung up. "Three locations?" I thought out loud. "What are you getting at?" Bruce asked me. "I'm not sure…"

Bruce dropped me off at one of the locations then took off. "Well, if this isn't a pleasant surprise." 'I know that voice…' I heard a loud thunk behind me. I turned around and saw… Joan? "You survived?" I said to him happily. "Hey bro. Happy to see me?" She asked. "Surprised actually. I changed the future. How are you still here?" I asked her. "Shouldn't you… you know, be a changed person?" She laughed.

"Remember that old time machine we took to come back here? The one that looked like a car?" She asked. "Well, when I first used it, it was running beautifully. That spill in the toxic waste gave me the power to survive in any condition…" 'Time machine… any condition…' My face went from thinking to a shocking epiphany. "But nothing can survive an event horizon." "Except me, Jakey." My face wasn't changing. "I didn't know where I was. I was just as scared as you are now, maybe even more. I went insane." "Just like you are now?" I asked. "Ooh yes." It sounded like she said that like she enjoyed it. "I don't know how long I was there before I finally found a way out. I found the time machine and went back to my own time with total amnesia of my time there until you tried to blow me up with the missile. And now, I'm back. And ready to kick your little ass!"

I regained my composure and was able to calm down. "Look, I'm just here for some answers, Joan. I'm not interested in a fight." "Well I am." Then, literally a second later, I was on my knees while my spider sense buzzed, then blacked out.

I don't know how long I was blacked out, but when I woke up, I couldn't move my arms. "Well, welcome back Jake." I heard Robin say. "Just when I thought you proved yourself to me." Batman said. "What can I say Bats? I lost Superman's powers." I said to him. "And what about you? Why are you here?" He didn't reply. "He went up against Bane. Got beaten up. Course I should talk, I got beaten by Deathstroke." Said Robin. "Bane has a different strength enhancer." I heard Batman say. "Who's Bane? And who's Deathstroke?" I asked them. "Deathstroke is a skilled mercenary. And Bane… well… he's an enemy of Batman who got his back broken by Bane." "So what do we do now? I can't win against Joan…" Batman interrupted me. "She's back? How?" I explained everything she said to me. "So yeah, what I'm thinking is that Superman goes up against Joan, I face Bane, and you guys go up against Deathstroke."

"You can't!" Robin said. "He'll kill you!" "We need to get out of here, or they'll kill us all. Now who's gonna call Superman?" I asked them. "They took our belts and destroyed our comm links and I doubt Miss Martian's telepathic abilities will reach us." But then I had a thought. "But her uncle can."

Me: 'J'onn, do you copy?'

J'onn: 'I copy, Jake.'

Me: 'I need you to open a line to Superman.'

J'onn: 'He's on.'

Me: 'Clark, can you hear me?'

Clark: 'Jake?'

Me: 'No time to explain, we need you.'

Clark: 'Give me your location and I'll come to you.'

Me: 'Well… our comm links are broken, so I'll need your super hearing to help.'

Clark: 'Okay, ready.'

"Okay guys, Superman should be coming in a bit." I said to the duo tied up with me. 'Got it. On my way.' Joan, Bane, Deathstroke, and another guy with a mask came in and Joan gave me a swift kick to the face. "OW! Shit!" 'Hurry!' "That's for getting any funny ideas, Jakey." Superman shot through the wall and tackled Joan into the other wall. Bane walked over to me and picked me up by the head, and I tried sending a kick straight to him… but it didn't reach. I was off by just an inch.

Then I could feel he was putting the squeeze on me. I was starting to feel the pain before I fell out of his grip, then I felt stronger than before. I hopped up and did a backfliping kick to his jaw, and jumped up and kicked him right into Deadshot and Deathstroke… then fell right on my ass. "Ow… what just happened?"

A little bit later, after Batman cut our ropes, and Captain Comet and my dad came, we got rid of Bane's venom tubes, and placed him, Deadshot, and Deathstroke under arrest. Then I remembered something. "Oh crap…! Joan!" As soon as I said that, Superman came crashing through the roof of the building… and my spider sense buzzed. "Everybody, get back!" We all ran back and I pulled Superman back on some of my webs just as Joan shot through the roof like a meteor, with the resulting shockwaves blasting everybody back. "What the hell…?"

Me: 'J'onn, are we still linked?'

J'onn: 'Yes. Is there anything you need?'

Me: 'A get out of fight with my life card. My older half-sister is back and badder than last time.'

J'onn: 'Oh no…'

Me: 'Put Wally and Barry on.'

J'onn: 'Barry, Wally, Jake needs your help.'

Barry: 'Whoa, hey there.'

Wally: 'Jake?'

Me: 'Barry…! Joan's back! Wally, you and Barry get to the teleporter I used to get to the other universe, set an emergency warp to that teleporter with my back to the teleporter, then go through. I have another idea.'

I was the only one to get to my feet, but Clark didn't get up yet. "The hell did you do to Superman?" "I dunno, same thing I'm gonna do to you, but tenfold!" She tried rushing me, but I backflipped onto the wall above me, causing her to crash through the wall below me. I crawled down and poked my head through the hole, but she crashed through the part of the wall I was clinging to, then smashed me into the floor. "I'm starting to get the idea now… Ow…" 'Flashes… anytime now.'

Joan hovered above me and was just about to smash into me, but we disappeared, then reappeared in the Watchtower in front of the teleporter, went through it, and ended up in the Avengers universe, where we crashed into a building hard enough to cause all the windows within a 10 mile shattering beyond repair. And the two Flashes followed after, just as I said. "Jake! Anything for us to do now?" Barry asked me. Joan threw me towards them, and I slid about another ten feet before stopping at their feet. "Yeah… One: help me. Two: Kid Flash, look for a big green monster with a bad temper. Uncle Flash…"

I looked around, but Joan was about to smash into me so Flash picked me up and sped me around to avoid her. "Yes, the Avengers mansion is here. Okay, Flash, take me to that building there." I pointed to the mansion and we ended up there in a flash. "JARVIS, where are Tony and the Hulk?" "Scans show that they have not returned from Asgard yet." He replied. "As-what…? Never mind. Can you find the next best? As smart as Tony? And get the Thing too!" I said to him. "Jake… did we both just go insane or did I just hear the same voice you just did?" Barry asked me. "I'll explain later. JARVIS?" "I have located Reed Richards and Ben Grimm, both of the Fantastic Four." Said JARVIS. "Great!" I said, both excitedly and out of fear for my life, safety, and sanity. "Get them ASAP! Barry, we gotta stall Joan." I said to Barry.

"The Fantastic Four is actually here now." I heard JARVIS say. I rushed out to see the Thing, a guy on fire, and another woman trying to fight Joan along with Wally, with the Thing actually handling himself there. Wally sped over to me and asked me about the blonde woman. "Wally, don't even think about it. She looks way too old for you anyway." I saw the older looking guy stretch half his body over to here. "That's gross." I heard Wally say. "JARVIS said you needed us?" Said Mr. Stretchy. "The woman that the rest of your team is fighting is deadly." I said to him. "JARVIS said that you're just as smart as Tony Stark and I need a place to hold her." I said to Mr. Stretchy. "I have just the place, but I left the entrance back in my lab. I'll be back." He stretched himself up to a hover car and flew off.

"Hey Thing! Over here!" We ran inside, with me shooting a couple webs to the surrounding walls. Thing pulled me back, then launched me like a slingshot, feet out, right into Joan. But that didn't keep her down for long, cause she got right back up. "Oh crap!" But then some kind of invisible force shoved me aside to make room for the Thing to charge in and get back in the fight with Joan.

Joan, however, threw the Thing to the side, then the fire-y guy who just flew in to try and get in the fight. 'Dammit, if only Hulk was here…' Joan then looked right at me, and charged right at me. But Barry beat her to me and caught me and ran around with me, more toying with Joan than stalling. Eventually, Mr. Stretchy came back and tossed a gun that looked like a silver handgun with a big flashlight lens down. "Point at her and fire!" Wally caught it, because I could barely hear him with Barry running around, then fired a beam at her. It missed though, but a circle opened up behind her. Unfortunately, she was strong enough to resist the the vacuum, but she wasn't going anywhere.

Unfortunately, again, Barry and I were being pulled in, so I had to shoot a web at the ground to anchor myself. "**What now?**" "Try giving me that lamppost." The Thing replied. I shot an web at the light and tried pulling it off its base, but nothing was happening. "Oh brother…" I heard Thing say before he jumped towards the lamp and kicked it off its base, letting me pull it towards me. Then Thing jumped towards me and grabbed the lamp.

"Hey batta batta!" I called out while Thing swung at Joan, knocking her right into the big circle. Then it closed up after she fell inside, and Barry and I fell to the ground. "We… we won…" was the last thing I said before I passed out.

Some time later, after we were all introduced to each other, Johnny and Sue left. "Alright, I brought Barry and Wally here more because I thought Tony and the Hulk were here. But you guys are good too." I explained my plan to them and about an hour later, we got another teleporter linked to the teleporter in the Watchtower using the sample scan JARVIS took when I wanted to call my dad and Karen. We said our goodbyes after Wally and I lost Barry and Reed while they were speaking geek. After they finished, we stepped through the teleporter.

[In the dimension the Thing smacked Joan into]

"**JAAAAAAKE**! When I get out of here, I will get revenge on him, and **I WILL kill him, his friends, and his family**!" Then weird four-armed monster with one diamond arm, one arm on fire, and two furry, smaller arms, strange looking wings, a black back with green lines, a maroon body and head with 2 left eyes and a weird right eye and antenna, and a blue and black striped tail and cargo shorts flew over. "Hey," He said with a scary grin. "I couldn't help but overhear you want revenge on somebody." "Yeah, so what?" Joan said angrily. "I'm looking for someone to help me sort of kill a certain 10-year-old pain in the ass." Then Joan put on an evil grin. "You can call me Joan." She said. "Kevin. Kevin 11." Said the monster.


	30. Copycat Roustabout

Scorpion Warrior

Chapter 30

When I got back to the Justice League universe from the Avengers universe after the big fight between Joan and me, the two Flashes, and the Fantastic Four, I was told that Superman woke up, Deadshot and Slade were arrested, and Bane was arrested as well but sent to rehab for the venom.

A few days later, the team and I decided on having a campfire as a team building exercise. Earlier, I joined Wally on the couch in the living room as he was flipping through the channels and a giant orange robot head with green, rectangular eyes showed up on the screen. "Remind you of anyone?" He said to me which caused me to roll my eyes. "Ouch." I said sarcastically. I still had cuts and bruises on my face from the thing with Joan, but they were already healing. I'm just glad Wally and Barry didn't get as hurt as I did. "So, this place has everything… but not satellite?" I said to him. He started complaining about nothing being on TV, until he noticed M'gann walked in reading a book and sped over to her. Then I took over his job of channel surfing. She offered to make us all a sandwich, but I declined. Good thing, too, because I heard Wally say he cleaned out the whole kitchen.

Then I heard Wally offer a movie. Unfortunately, they were both broke, so they looked at me. "Spent all my cash on a motorcycle, sorry." I said. Wally offered to take M'gann surfing. "Too dark." I called out. Then I heard him offer up a campfire since it was dark. That wasn't too bad an idea… if he hadn't forgotten about the Martians' weaknesses to fire. "Way to go, Loverboy." He got excited about the campfire, roasting marshmallows, making s'mores… then sped off, saying he'd be back in a few minutes.

Then I had a thought, which put an evil grin on my face. I was just about to say that we should invite the rest of the team, just to mess with Wally, but M'gann already stole my idea. Robin, Conner, and Kaldur already gathered in the kitchen just as Wally came back with some stuff for the campfire. "You might need a lot more stuff, Wally." I said, trying to hold back my giggling.

Which brings us back to the present. We were outside, roasting the marshmallows, and I noticed Robin STILL wearing his sunglasses, even outside at night. "Shouldn't you take the sunglasses off at night?" I asked him, slightly sarcastically. "Batman doesn't want me to reveal my secret identity, even to the team." I sighed. Even for him, that's a bit harsh.

He looked towards Wally and said how great an idea this was to go camping and Wally came back telling us the "big difference between camping and a campfire". "Besides, I don't like camping… outdoors… unless I'm with that special someone." That got me thinking about why I didn't think about inviting Karen. Then I got thinking that that might be a little awkward. But Robin snapped me out of my daydream, "Dude, don't get creepy on us now." Which made me giggle a little. "Well this was a great idea!" Megan called out. "She doesn't seem to think so." Wally retorted. "That's because she's on a sugar high." Robin answered. "I didn't even know that could happen to Martians." I said. "Well I get to try s'mores for the first time, thanks to Wally." Megan said excitedly. "What can I say? I'm a sweetie. Get it? Cause s'mores are sweet?" I gave him a thumbs down for that joke. "And I get to go camping for the first time in 18 years thanks to Wally." I said, half-seriously and half-mocking Megan.

"So this is camping?" Conner said. "Sleeping in these flimsy tents and sitting around a fire?" "Wait til you go to your first amusement park." I said to him. "But yeah," Wally continued. "If you're bored, I can sit alone… with Ms. M…" Wally "suggested". I leaned in towards Robin. "He just passed creepy." "You're about as subtle as a train wreck, Wally." He said. "You can't catch the fish unless you go fishing dude." I looked towards Kaldur, hoping Kid Quick would get my hint. He turned to him as well, "No offense."

"But usually we sit around and tell stories." I said. Megan looked at Kaldur and asked him how he became Aqualad. 'This could be interesting.'

Kaldur's story: "I grew up in Shayeris, an Atlantic city. Surface dwellers think all Atlanteans are the same, but our kingdom is many. Many cities, many people, many cultures. When I was twelve, I completed my education and began my mandatory service in the Atlantean military, which is standard for all at that age." I looked shocked. 'Mandatory?' "After a while, I was transferred to the prestigious conservatory of sorcery in the Atlantean capital of Poseidonis. Queen Mera is the head mistress of the conservatory and wife of King Orin, Aquaman. It was a different time for me." 'I could imagine.'

"It was difficult, as it would be for anyone at age fourteen, but also a time in my life where I met friends that I know would last a lifetime. Then came a day… a horrible day when Poseidonis was attacked by the Ocean Master. I can remember it vividly, as if it happened only yesterday, when Aquaman nearly met his end." I must've gotten more interested in his story than anybody. "Aquaman and Ocean Master fought for a long time. When they fought, it seemed to shake the very foundations of the city." 'Like my first fight with Joan…'

"Ocean Master had gained the upper hand and nearly defeated Aquaman. In fact, he was defeated. Until a fellow student named Garth and I intervened on the King's behalf. It was the only thing we could think of doing. The danger did not occur to us, the only thing that mattered to us was that our king was in trouble." 'A true hero.' "That must have been one of the most foolish things Garth and I had ever done, as we had nearly met our own ends.

"We had no hope of defeating him, but the time we spent fighting him was just enough for Aquaman to recover. That was all he needed as he finally triumphed over Ocean Master, saving us and the city. Aquaman is a being of two worlds. On the surface, he is a member of the Justice League; under the sea, he is royalty, carrying the weight of both responsibilities. Too overwhelming for him to handle, as not even he can do it forever." 'Glad I'm not king.'

"Realizing that Batman and Green Arrow have both taken on apprentices, King Orin had been contemplating the same idea." 'Should I take on a partner? Green Arrow has a partner?' "With this in mind, he approached both Garth and myself with the possibility of becoming his protégés. The possibility intrigued me immediately. In fact, Garth and I both considered the offer. Except that Garth chose to stay to continue his studies with sorcery. However, my dream to visit the surface world was a dream come true.

"So at the age of fourteen, I became Aqualad. Aquaman brought Aqualad to the surface." And I interrupted with "And the rest is rock and roll history, eh?" "If you say so." He replied. "Let me tell you how I got started." Wally said.

Wally's story: "This one literally goes back a couple generations. Each generation of Flash started with a bang! Literally. Jay Garrick was in a freak lab accident. Then… BOOM! There it is." "Literally?" I ask him jokingly. "During the 40's and 50's, he was everywhere!" "Literally?" I asked again. "Enough." He said. "Jay Garrick was the fastest man alive… The World's First Flash.

"One day, this guy comes along, says he's one of the Flash's biggest fans. Says he wants to know all about Jay Garrick. Back then, he didn't hide his identity." "So he was like John Stewart." I mentioned. "I guess so. The guy contacts Jay and they spend hours and hours talking about his adventures and the accident. He even went as far as to recreate the accident that created the original." "Barry?" I asked. "You got it." He replied. "The result… was still a big explosion, but lo and behold, he becomes Speedy McSpeed himself. Now he's another Flash." He went on yammering about the differences between the two Flashes. "But it turns out, that the generations of fans goes back in reverse order. I was a fan of the second Flash as he was of the first Flash.

"So, I'm at my uncle's house, and I find his notebooks and get the biggest shock of a lifetime: That your uncle and the Flash are the same person. So once I calmed down, I kept reading. Right to where he wrote down his experiences and experiments. When I found out, I dropped hints here and there that he could use a partner. I tried convincing him, begging him, I mean come on, Batman had Robin by this time and Green Arrow had Speedy." "Was that before or after you rescued me from Cadmus? Cause I had no idea that Green Arrow had a partner, and I was in the Justice League for 4 years." I said.

"Anyway, so I saw his notes…" "And being as stubborn as you are, you were pretty much determined to join him, right?" I asked him, as jokingly as before. "Dude, this is my story." He complained. "Just finish yours already." "Anyway, I have my own chemistry set, so I try to recreate it." "That figures." I got out before Wally started glaring at me. "Anyway…! I was able to recreate the experiment." "And it actually worked?" I asked him. "Not at first… I was hospitalized for a week, and pretty bummed that all I got was an explosion, but a couple weeks later, I was running. I ran all the way to Flash 2's house to show him. And how could he NOT want me as a partner.

"I wish you could've seen his face when I showed him. This time, he jumped at the opportunity to have a partner. He couldn't wait to show the world. He was beyond ecstatic, he couldn't contain his excitement. It was the greatest day in the history of the world. Why you ask?" "Let me put it on the record that nobody asked." I said as another joke. "That was the day the world got Kid Flash. You are all welcome."

"Yes, thank you for giving the Justice League another headache." I said. "Jealous?" He said to me. "I used to be able to fly and shoot laser beams from my eyes. Why would I be jealous of you?" "Cause you couldn't run as fast as Superman." I took the marshmallow he was roasting and ate it in revenge. "Your turn, Robin." Said Megan. "Ha!" Wally called out. "Bats won't even let him tell you his real name. You'll probably get a better origin story out of Supey." "But you already told me, didn't you?" Megan asked. "You guys rescued him from Cadmus." "Him and Jake." He said. "I will hurt you." I threatened. Don't worry, I didn't mean it.

"Chronologically, Conner is only 16 weeks old." I whistled surprisingly at what Kaldur said. "And you have no memories of anything before being rescued?" Megan asked. "I have some memories… given to me from the G-gnomes… they'd teach me about the outside world…" Conner said, a little dejected. "But you could remember things right? They'd feed you information and you could remember it?" Megan asked. "When I was in the pod, they fed me information… I really didn't start thinking for myself until after I got out." Conner said. "What kind of things do you think about now?" I asked him. "The one thing that's always on my mind… is destroying Superman!" My jaw dropped. The air was so tense after he said that.

But for some reason, Robin wasn't saying anything since Megan asked him about his story, so I snapped in has face to snap him out of it, which worked. "Hey, did you hear Conner?" I asked him. "Why do you wanna take down Superman?" Wally asked him. "It's how I feel sometimes." That was all Conner could say for himself. "What if that's why I was created? What if that was the ONLY reason?" He asked. "No way! Everybody, anybody can change." I said. "What about your sister?" Wally asked me. I just ignored that. "What would be the possible reasoning behind this thinking?" Kaldur asked.

"I don't know… Sometimes thoughts happen." "Those are silly thoughts. You should put them out of your head." Megan said. "He does have a point. We don't really know too much about him, though, or what they did to him." Robin said. "In my world…" Kaldur began. "Actions speak louder than words. Superboy has proven his intentions with his actions."

So, after the shock of Conner's… "origin" passed, Wally wanted to know about Megan's story. "Yeah, I can't believe there's life on Mars." I said. "Well, all Martians live in underground tunnels because the surface is uninhabitable." 'Oh yikes.' "Our family lives are very intertwined." 'Uh…' "As you already know, we mostly communicate telepathically." 'Ooh…' "Telepathy helps large Martian families maintain a sense of community." "How many do you have in in your family?" I asked her. "Twelve sisters, seventeen brothers, and over three hundred cousins." I coughed awkwardly and kept my thoughts to myself so she wouldn't hear them. "Are they all hot girls like you?" I leaned in towards Robin. "He's definitely gone way past creepy now." "You sure are a class act, Wally." Robin said to Wally.

"Wouldn't you guys want to visit a planet with three hundred other hot women?" Wally asked us. Conner looked confused, Kaldur looked away, and Robin just looked embarrassed, but I couldn't tell behind the sunglasses. "Dude, if Karen heard me say something like that, she'd SEND me to Mars." I said. "And she could do it too. Continue, Megan."

"Well, half of my cousins are male, but most of them look similar, mostly green like me and Uncle J'onn, but there are some who look different… there are some Martians that are red and white." I giggled a little at something. "Some on my planet don't see the white Martians as equals… they see them as inferior…" I stopped giggling after she said that. "My parents were both green and I was raised in what you would call a… "liberal" type of environment. My family and I had no issues with the white Martians, but others weren't as tolerant. And the treatment of the white Martians were especially horrible…" I seemed a little suspicious about that last part, but kept my thoughts to themselves again. In case Megan was listening in.

"So how'd you come to Earth then?" Wally asked her. "Out of all my family, I was closer to my Uncle J'onn than anybody. We had a great relationship. In fact, we would actually watch your exploits on Earth with the rest of the Justice League, Jake." I beamed. "He grew to be a true beacon of hope and stood for what our society could achieve. He became the most famous Martian in our history! When he returned to Mars, it was declared a day of planet wide celebration. But he had a specific purpose in mind when he came back. When he learned about all of you guys, he decided to introduce a younger Martian hero to Earth. J'onn J'onzz came to Mars and held a competition to find the next Martian who would fly among the heroes of Earth.

"I entered the contest along with half the Martian population. However, I was coming to Earth. The competition was fierce and exciting. It either consumed or touched the lives of every single Martian on the planet. At first, Uncle J'onn looked like he didn't want me to compete. I thought maybe it was that he didn't want me coming to Earth. I saw some of his adventures, and they were life-threatening and dangerous. But I wanted it. I was determined to win. From everything I saw and heard about up to then, I loved it. I wanted to win the whole competition. And my dream came true.

"My heart soared! I was coming to Earth! That was the most exciting time of my life! Now I'm here with all of you!" "We're happy you're with us, Megan." Robin said. "You could say that again." Wally said. "I think we should get to sleep though," Kaldur said. "Don't you all think?" "But first…" Robin said while staring at me. "Alright, I know what you're thinking…" "Really? Are you a telepath like me?" Megan said, interrupting me. "No… no. It's time for my story now." I grinned.

"Well," I started. "This goes as far back as my dad. He started in the police academy about… a few years before I was born. Plus, it was around then that he met my mom, one of Superman's old girlfriends: Lana Lang. Before then, he was a bit of a slacker, but he was a great cop. He graduated from the police academy when I was four and we went camping to celebrate. That was the first time I went camping, and I haven't gone since. Anyway, a few months later, my mom died, but they were never able to find who did it. My dad always said she died with a smile on her face, which made us happy at least." I heard Megan go aww and saw Robin looking down. At least, I think he was. Damn sunglasses.

"He did so great in his job as a cop, better than some of the other ones actually, that 10 years later, he became Chief of Police to this very day. Then when I was in high school, I took up parkour cause I was a big fan of the Flying Graysons and I wanted to be like them as much as I could without actually being there." I saw Robin grin a little. "Who isn't?" He said. "So, four years ago, when I entered 12th grade, I met one of my crushes, Danielle. My class went on this field trip. So, we had free time away from the adults, so we found ourselves in the science lab. It was a big room and I just couldn't help but try parkour there. I wanted to do this trick, you know to impress Danielle. Yeah, I know. It's a cliché, but how else do you impress a girl you like?" "By doing something stupid and dangerous?" Wally said.

"Yes… by doing something stupid and dangerous… What I was gonna try to do is run up the wall on the banister upstairs, jump off and do a large step from the railing, land on the big hourglass in the middle of the room, and front-flip onto the floor where I asked everyone to make room. Unfortunately, I didn't think about how heavy I was compared to the glass. So what happened next was me smashing through the glass and then shot out the other side. I think I was in there a couple seconds.

"So, sometime later, I find out I have super strength while getting mugged, and I also found out that bullets don't hurt me, and later in the day, I find out that I can fly… after flying over to destroy a flaming…" I sighed cause it's still just as embarrassing to say it now as it was to fight then. "A flaming… monster. Anyway, I went to rescue somebody from a guy who was holed up in an abandoned steel mill. Then Metallo appears, he tries to use kryptonite on me, which was actually the stuff I fell in that gave me my powers…

"So at the time, I didn't know that I could absorb kryptonite, so…" "Wait wait wait, you were able to absorb kryptonite?" Wally asked me. "Yeah. I got that power from my mom. My dad said that before she left Smallville, she was fused with a suit that gave her some of the powers of a Kryptonian, and they were passed down to me.

"So… some time before I fought Gorilla Grodd, I found out Danielle was dating the guy who used to bully me throughout freshman and sophomore year." Robin and Wally started laughing their asses off. "Gee… thanks." Megan glared at me and asked me what happened next. "After that, one of the workers moved into the apartment next door to me and I started dating their daughter, Angel, for a while."

"What happened?" Megan asked me while Kaldur and Conner were putting Robin and Wally into their tents since they couldn't stop laughing. "Honestly… it's been practically forever. I can't really remember.

"Also, not only am I a superhero, I'm also a part-time detective. I just so happened to solve two impossible cases… with Batman's help at the end…"

After the excitement of the stories, and after Wally and Robin finally calmed down, everyone started to get tired, so we all decided to turn in. "This was a wonderful evening, but I'm excited to sleep in a tent." Megan said… excitedly. "Right behind you." Said the king of creepy himself, Wally West. Before he was able to take a step, I snagged him with one of my webs. "Your tent's over there." I said, pointing to his tent. "Which reminds me… next time, let's actually camp out in the forest, or an actual campground… rather than in the backyard." I finished.

"Ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to the Haly International Traveling Circus! Where the world at the center ring is your oyster. And introducing our newest pearls: The Daring Dangers!"

An hour ago, we were all gathered together in the mission room while I was debriefing the team. "All throughout Europe, advanced weapons tech was being stolen from manufacturing companies. Each theft coincides with stops made by the Haly circus." I started to get off-track. "Oh that takes me back to a time before Scorpion Warrior… anyway, I'm coming with you guys in an undercover op to catch them."

Roy Harper, Green Arrow's original sidekick, walked over. "Room for one more?" "We've got this covered." Robin replied. "You've got the mission covered, but who's covering the three potential moles you've got tagging along?" Some time ago, there reports of a few moles. "Not to worry, Red. I've got THAT covered." I said to him.

Back in the present, Jack Haly was introducing "The Daring Dangers": Robin was Dan Danger, Conner was Dean Danger, Miss Martian was Dawn Danger, Artemis Crock, Green Arrow's new sidekick, was Diane Danger, and Roy was Dane Danger. 'How Jack managed to find names all starting with the letter D is beyond me.'

A little while earlier, Robin was trying to convince me to join them on the trapeze. "You could be David Danger!" He said. "I'm sure that blowing my cover isn't part of the mission specs, Rob." I responded. "Besides, isn't six a bit too much for a trapeze show?" "Not really." Said Robin. "The Flying Graysons had six people in their troupe." "Oh yeah, they did, didn't they? John, Richard, Mary, Karla, another John, and then Dick." I said to myself, but out loud. "I'm not an acrobat, though." I brought my voice down to a whisper. "I'd have to use the moves I developed as Scorpio. He has quite a few enemies, and if anybody caught on that he was there, I'd either be mobbed, my identity would be revealed, or the audience would be put in… danger." I said, until I caught what I said. "No pun intended…"

So, after a lot of arguing, they finally relented and named me as manager of the Daring Dangers.

Once again, back in the present, Robin didn't look all that well to me. "What's wrong? He's normally better than that out in the field." I helped hold Robin up while we overheard another circus act complain about the Dangers lying about their identities. "You wanna say that to my face?" I mumbled to myself. Robin got to his feet while an official looking guy in a suit walked up to us and introduced himself as Faraday of Interpol. "I'm Jake Smith, their manager. If you have a problem, talk to me." I said to him. "Easy kid. None of you are in any trouble. Are you all a new act?" He asked. "Yeah. New act." Robin replied. "Then that probably clears you. But I'll get Haly for this."

[Later]

'If Interpol's on this, why do we have to deal with this?' Conner was complaining about why we're dealing with something that Interpol can, and probably should, deal with by themselves in our psychic link that Megan established a few seconds ago. 'Relax, Conner. My dad got some intel about some thefts that were coinciding with the tour schedule of Jack Haly, the circus ringmaster who brought the Flying Graysons to fame, so he asked me to check it out. Jack and my dad are close friends, so he asked me to check it out as a favor.' I thought back to him. 'Why did you have to bring us along?' Conner asked again. 'Didn't seem like you were doing anything better.' I retorted.

'How do we know the thieves will hit here?' Artemis said. 'There are more obvious targets.' Roy had a good point there. 'True, but those spots are already being covered by Faraday, so we have no problem there. Wow… the one time I don't wear my costume.' It was my turn to complain now. 'I analyzed the tech already stolen, and the pattern suggests this is the place.

'Ha ha… I love having night vision binoculars.' I was getting off focus, but got myself back on track and continued scanning the area. 'There, northeast quadrant.' Conner called out. I watched the fenced part and saw somebody flip over the fence. 'Okay if thieves are getting smarter…' 'That could be Carlo or his brother. Keep an open mind.' Robin said. 'Move out.' I called out.

A few minutes later, we found ourselves closer to the warehouse. 'Anybody know where he went?' I asked. A loud crash coming from behind us nearly gave me a heart attack. 'Don't scare me like that.' 'Does anyone know where he went?' Robin asked. I shrugged and Conner said, 'In the warehouse.' 'How… never mind.' I started to ask how he knew that, until I remembered his Kryptonian DNA gives him x-ray vision.

"Hahaha! Caught red handed!" I don't think I've ever been out in the field with the team yet, but that was a pretty unnerving laugh. "Red faced too I'll bet." 'That… was awful.' "Acrobatics won't get you out of this." Said Artemis, while she and Roy were aiming their arrows at our thief. "Yet they got him in here…" I said. Then the thief took a flare and a big stream of fire was blown out at us. "Whoa!" I called out as we all tried to avoid getting toasted. "Those crates are full of live ammo! Move!" Roy called out. "They're what?" Was the only thing I was able to get out before the ammo exploded on us and lit the warehouse on fire. I was launched out of the building and slammed into one of the C-trains when it exploded, so I don't know if anybody survived or not.

The next morning, we were all back at the circus, with the team in their Daring Dangers costumes. And there was Faraday yelling at Jack about last night's little tussle. "I did a bunk check last night, and everybody in my troupe was asleep in their bunks." Haly said. "Wow…" I said out loud, then switched to the psychic link Megan set up. 'I didn't think he'd cover for us.' I said. 'And if he's lying about us…' Artemis said. 'Then who else is he covering for…?' I finished.

Later, we were on the train Haly uses to transport the circus. 'So now there's two thieves? The firebreather and one of the acrobat brothers?' Artemis asked. 'This all seems too weird.' I said. 'I don't think there's two.' Robin said while he was looking at his holo-computer. "Here's security footage for Madrid.' There was a shadowy figure breaking into a building. 'And now Paris.' Another shadowy figure tightroping across an electrical wire. 'The strongman and the clown too? If the whole circus is involved, then Haly might even be the mastermind.' Roy said. 'I don't know… something's fishy…' I said. 'Jack Haly is one of my dad's best friends.' 'But that would explain why Haly's covering for us though…' Artemis said. Robin shot up. "I told you to keep an open mind!" And stormed off.

'Hello Megan, I could read Haly's mind.' Megan said. 'I don't think you should. You might tip him off.' Roy said. 'Hey, I'm gonna go check up on Robin…' I said. Then I walked out and started tailing him, keeping hidden so he doesn't see me. He stopped for a second to look at something, until he started talking to someone on his comm link. I hid between two of the boxcars he was looking away from and I overheard him say, "I left you behind because you know my backstory. You would've questioned my objectivity." Then he walked away after looking at one more poster. As soon as I thought the coast was clear, I walked up to and looked at the posters he was looking at, one of which was a poster for The Flying Graysons.

'He snapped when Artemis suggested Jack could be the mastermind behind these thefts… open mind, yet Robin was being a bit… he was putting more heart into this mission than I've seen. Why does Robin care so much about proving Jack innocent? I mean, I do too, but Robin… then he zoned out when Megan asked about his own backstory. What does he have to do with the Flying Graysons?' Then I thought back to their final performance. To a time before Scorpion Warrior happened.

I was a big fan of the Flying Graysons. There was Jack Haly in the center of the ring introducing the final act of all his shows, the ones all of his audiences went to see: The Flying Graysons. "He loved them," my dad would tell me. "Even more than his own family." After their routines, Dick Grayson couldn't join in their last routine since it was too dangerous. But I was secretly jealous of Dick cause he'd always have the best seat. Oh boy… Then they'd do the routine. It went smoothly, as usual, until the whole rig broke and they all fell. Normally, there'd be a net to catch them, but what made the final act of their shows really exciting was NO net at all. After a minute or so, my dad, the fifteen year veteran Chief of Police at the time, marking the area as a crime scene. Unfortunately, there was no substantial evidence to implicate something, so they had to close the case as a freak accident.

'That poor kid… but Robin…? And he lashes out…?' I put it in the back of my mind and stopped thinking about it.

A while later, after the Daring Dangers' show, I was helping to pack up the train. A little after that, Megan was sick with Robin's flu, but Robin was feeling better. "Who knew Martians could get sick?" She said. "H. G. Wells?" I was never too much of a fan of his. I only liked the movie Time Machine with Guy Pearce. "When did you get sick?" I asked her. "Just after boarding the train. It just came on so suddenly. "Same with me the other night." Robin said. "Ray rubbed my head for good luck." "Ray? The roustabout?" I wondered. "He touched Megan before we boarded." Said Conner, a bit angrily I could add. "If he's making everybody sick, I don't want him near me." I said. I'm horrible when I'm sick. I followed along with everybody when we said we'd check up on Ray.

I sat down on a crate when we walked in the prop room. "Does this circus have an elephant I don't know about?" I asked. "Not on foreign tours." Robin replied. I hopped off the crate and opened it. "Empty?" "No wait," Roy reached into the crate. "Ash." "From the warehouse fire in Bruge?" I wondered. "Guys…? I found Ray." Artemis said. "Or Ray's face?" I said, confused. "Split up! Search the whole train!" Robin called out. I partnered up with him in the search and heard some mumbling coming from another room. Robin kicked the door in and we found Jack Haly himself bound and gagged on the floor. "Who did this to you?" I asked him. "Ray! Ray the roustabout, right after the train left Bruge! He knocked me out and put me in here." Robin dashed out of the room, and I was about to follow him, before Jack stopped me. "Jake, wanna untie me first?" "Sorry Mr. Haly, we think there's something going on. You'll be safer here."

Then I caught up with Robin. "So what's the plan?" I asked him. "Can't reach Dawn." He said. "So much for radio silence. Call the others that way." I said. My comm link's been busted after the ordeal with Joan, so I couldn't listen in on what they were gonna plan.

A few minutes later, Robin and I ended up on the roof with a clown and Conner right when Conner said, "That won't work on me clown." "That's no clown, that's Parasite. The guy who once stole Superman's powers." Robin said. I looked a little nervous. "Stay back! The weakness comes from when he touches you!" 'Oh crap.' "I have been a bit gluttonous lately. Fed off the powers and skills of nearly every loser in this troupe." '**Loser?**' "But the pièce de résistancewas when I chowed down on Dawn Danger's abilities. Thought I'd munch on her trapeze skills, imagine my surprise when she tasted like Martian Manhunter instead." He looked towards Conner. "She was just an appetizer, though, compared to what I'm gonna get from him!" His eyes glowed green and Conner was pulled towards him, eventually Parasite grabbed Conner and looked like he was choking him. "That's… not good." I said. "Everyone! Stay whelmed! Subdue, but keep your distance!" Robin told us. 'Whelmed?'

Roy and Artemis were aiming their arrows at Parasite, but he torched their arrows using some heat vision. "Wait… heat vision? Conner doesn't have heat vision. Hey Robin, did he always have Superman's powers?" "No, he can't permanently keep anybody's powers." He responded. "Wow… I can't believe I'm actually saying this, but… I'm sated. Hate to eat and run." He flew off, psychically carrying a trunk with him. "Oh no you don't!" Robin tried catching up to him, but he just bitch slapped him right back down to the train. He fell off the train, but I caught him with one of my webs and helped pull him up.

"So what do we do now?" After everyone got back in uniform, we all reconvened in one of the leisure cars. Robin pulled out a flash drive and held it up. "Now, we take a look at this." After plugging it into his wrist comp, a holographic display popped up and started hacking the device. After it got in, Robin started analyzing what was in it. "Looks like Parasite's working for Intergang." I sat down next to him to get a look at the display for myself. "Everything he stole, they're all pieces of something." "It looks like they're putting together a weapon that generates…" I started to say while waiting for the rest of the display to show up. "Black holes?" Robin and I both said at the same time.

"No way." Roy said. "To build that, you'd need a particle accelerator." "Roy? What's in Geneva?" I asked him. "A large Boson Collider. And Geneva is the circus's next stop." He said. "Bingo. But now that Parasite can fly, he's got a huge head start on us." Said Robin. Roy pulled out a big bow. "So let's go. Without powers, the others will just hold us back." Artemis held up a crossbow. "You aren't the only one with a backup bow." Conner slammed a fist on the wall. "DUDE! HEART ATTACK!" I snapped at him. "My powers are back!" He called out. "How? Megan's not even…" "I guess Kryptonian's recover faster than humans or Martians." "Don't even think about leaving me behind." Megan said with confidence. I shot a web and snagged Roy's bow with it. "Or me."

A little while later, we ended up in Geneva. We found some guards unconscious outside, probably some of Parasite's other victims. "We need to lure him away so one of us can safely…" Conner's screaming and rushing towards Parasite wouldn't let Robin finish his plan. "Okay new plan: Once this is over, convince Batman to help get Conner the well deserved anger management therapy he so desperately needs." Conner rushed over and got caught in Parasite's telekinesis. Then was pulled over, but instead of being grabbed like last time, Conner gave him a right cross. "And then do what he did, but more focused."

Unfortunately, Conner was sapped again. "Scratch that last part." The boson collider started charging up. "Okay new plan: Stop that thing!" Megan walked out and made herself known to Parasite. "So what's wrong with Geneva?" "Never liked the food." He said. "But the menu keeps improving." He pulled Megan over with his telekinesis and tried sapping her, but she actually kicked butt. I don't know what happened, but when she landed, she swept him and he landed hard. That actually impressed me.

And then Roy tried shooting a foam-release arrow at Parasite. But he used telekinesis to lift Roy up and start squeezing him. Then Robin was at the computer attempting to sabotage the machine. And Artemis fired an arrow at Parasite that released some kind of flammable gas, I don't really remember which kind, and he was firing Conner's heat vision, which exploded the gas and caused a fire around him. "You're so clever. Tricking me into igniting flammable gas? I have a double dose of invulnerability. Fire… can't… touch me…"

"What's wrong, Parasite?" I said tauntingly. "Martian powers got you beat?" "You just chowed on a Martian's abilities." Said Robin. "Including our weaknesses." Megan finished. Then Agent Faraday walked over and placed an inhibitor collar around Parasite's neck, courtesy of an anonymous tip from good old me. "Thanks for the tip, Jake. It helps to have a couple inhibitor collars lying around." I grinned as Parasite was taken away.

Sometime later, I was walking over to Jack's office to talk to him about today's assignment when I heard him talking to Robin in there. What really caught me was when I heard Jack call Robin Dick. I completely forgot what I was gonna talk to Jack about because that brought up memories of the Flying Graysons' last show. I walked away, pretty sad.

Later, I was hanging out backstage, watching the Daring Dangers do their farewell performance.

Later, after the show was over, I caught Robin by himself in the changing room. "Hey Robin…" I said to him.

Robin: "Hey Jake. Something up?"

Me: "I was walking over to Jack's office to talk to him about the assignment and… well I know you're Dick Grayson of the Flying Graysons."

Robin: "What're you talking about?"

Me: "I heard Jack call you Dick. Of course, I did have some suspicions about you and Dick being the same person since the campfire."

Robin: "Really?"

Me: "Yeah. During my story, I saw you grin when I mentioned I was a fan of your family."

Robin: "Whoops… Batman's gonna kill me. Well what other proof do you have?"

Me: "When you snapped at Artemis when she accused Jack of being the mastermind behind the thefts. Then I tailed you a while after you left."

Robin: "He's… definitely gonna kill me now. Wait, you tailed me?"

Me: "I wanted to talk to you, see how you were doing. Then I found you looking at an old poster of your family. My dad once told me about how Jack even loved you guys more than his own family. And the opposite was also true: We loved you guys just as much as Jack did."

Robin: "So wait, when you said you wanted to take parkour?"

Me: "You guys actually inspired me to take it up. And I loved doing it."

Robin: "Wow… I'm actually flattered."

Me: "Yeah, so when your family had that spill back then, my dad was the first on the case. He suspected sabotage, but there wasn't enough evidence to rule any suspects, so he had to close the case as accidental death… sorry Rob."

Robin: "Don't worry about that. Batman and I caught the guys who did it during one of my first few outings as Robin."

Me: "Seriously? Can I tell my dad that? Cause he'd be thrilled."

Robin: "I don't know… it might mean having to tell him my secret."

Me: "Don't worry about that. I have a way with words. Besides, I know how much secret identities are to a superhero, so yours is entirely safe with me."

Robin: "And Wally."

Me: "He knows too?"

Robin: "Yeah. Him and I go way back, so I trusted him."

Me: "Of course… it'll be the whole matter of how I can talk to my dad without him finding out about you though…"

Robin: "Well don't worry about that either. If you trust him to keep your own identity a secret, then if he knows about me, then I'll okay with it."

So later that night, I told my dad everything Robin told me. He told me how much of a relief it was to know that the killers were brought to justice that he didn't even ask where I got my source. He's just glad to finally mark the case closed. And he was none the wiser.


	31. This Time It's PERSONALity

Scorpion Warrior

Chapter 31

"Hello, how can I help you?" A half hour ago, my dad asked me to look at something from his safety deposit box at the bank; he was a little sad about it. I took out my ID and asked him for my dad's box. "I'm his son, Jake Smith." "Right this way, sir." He took me to the back and I felt a little nervous about looking for his box because it seemed like there were a billion. "Dad… there are a billion boxes in here. Which one's yours?" I was on the phone with him and he directed me to where it was. I pulled it out and when I looked inside, I got the surprise of a lifetime.

"I thought we put this behind us…?" I said in a bit of shock. "We did, but some of the detectives in the precinct thought otherwise, so I helped look into it when I first started out as detective. That… was one of the cases I've never been able to solve." I was sitting there, staring at the case notes in shock. 'She survived the car crash… but afterwards…' My thought was interrupted by some gunshots. "Everybody down on the ground! If you all follow our instructions, nobody dies!" I rushed to the wall and got a good look. "If any cops show up…" One of them shot a guard a guard in the arm as he was reaching for his gun, but it just looked shallow. "Well… I'm sure you know." "Jake, what's going?" I heard my dad say over my earpiece. "Bank's being robbed." I had to lower my voice just in case they could hear me. "Can't you stop them?" He asked me, just as scared as I was. "I took the costume to the Justice League's personal dry cleaner." 'What a time to not have it… crap!' "Should we come?" He asked me. "No, they'll start dropping some hostages."

I thought for a while then combat rolled to the other wall in case someone could see me. "You heard them, right dad?" I asked him. "Yeah, I hear them." "Alright, I'm gonna walk out there, so they don't come in here, see me, and think something. But I'll have to leave my phone." I hid my phone in the corner, stuck the earpiece I was using, and shot a bit of web on them so nobody would see them. 'I'd try to close the door, but it's too heavy to pull and I'd risk somebody seeing me.' I made sure my dad could still hear through the web, and slowly made my way towards the hostages, while getting their attention at the same time.

Once they saw me, they almost immediately aimed their guns toward me. "Whoa, okay guys. No need for that. You can just go ahead with your business." "Why'd you come out here? You would've been safer where you were, little man." One of the thugs said. "And risk something worse happening to me if you clowns found me in there? No thanks. I'd rather risk myself out here." "Clowns eh? Funny. If I wasn't workin for a clown, I would've taken offense to that…" Once I got there, one of the guys gave me a pat down in case I had anything, along with my pockets, if I had a phone or any money. When they finally used their brains and figured out that I had nothing on me but the clothes on my back, the guy that searched me shoved his Uzi into my back. "Now siddown." "Easy with the gun buddy. Haven't your parents ever taught you not to play with them? You could put somebody's eye out."

"Wait… I know who you are." The thug that searched me said to me. 'Oh crap… not again…' "Guys, look who we have hostage! It's the kid from the papers. The kid who solved those three seemingly impossible murders." "He's the Chief of Police's son, what's the big deal?" One of the other thugs asked. "The big deal is that if we take him back to the Joker, he'll probably let him keep what we took. For some reason, the Joker has history with the guy, so if we take his kid, he'll probably promote us." I saw one of the other thugs go to the back towards the safety deposit boxes… and get brutally crushed in the door. Everybody was shielding their loved ones from the shock of what happened. "What the hell just happened?" The leader of the gang asked. The guy who helped me earlier was the one who answered. "The safety deposit vault automatically closes at a certain time and doesn't open until the morning. So you better be out of there and away from the door when it does."

"Dammit!" The leader called out before grabbing me and knocking me out. It felt like a long time before I woke up tied to a chair. "Seriously whoever's-holding-me-hostage? A chair?" I looked around to see where I was. A vent… a bookcase… so far nothing to cut the ties… great. 'Let's see…' I pressed my middle fingers into my palm and the webbing safely shot out. 'So I can still fire my webbing… can't move my feet, can't move my hands…' "Oh great… what am I supposed to do now?" I didn't see any cameras on any part of the walls, or I would've heard somebody's voice about now. So I lurch my legs forward and pull the front legs off the chair, but I couldn't keep myself from falling forward. "Ow."

I was able to push myself up though and got the chair balanced on the now-broken legs. 'Now that that's out of the way…' I grabbed the parts of the chair my wrists were bound to and tried pulling, but nothing happened. 'Well… that didn't work…' "Hmm…" I tried bending over forward and balancing myself on my head so my wrists were aimed up, then I successfully shot a couple webs up to the ceiling. 'Yes!' I pulled myself up to the ceiling, and started swinging my legs and start swinging back and forth. I was able to cling to the ceiling using my feet. "This is gonna hurt…" I dropped to the floor, knocking the wind out of myself, but at the same time, almost obliterating the chair. 'That must've woken somebody up.' I pushed the bookcase in front of the door so nobody could get in here while I make my escape through the vent, then escaped through the vent. 'What a time to not have my costume…' I made my way to the ceiling. 'Or my comm link… crap. Where am I?' I didn't recognize this part of Metropolis.

I must've spent half an hour and a buttload of webbing trying to find out where I am swinging all over the part of the city I was in. I finally found downtown Metropolis and swung over to the Justice League's dry cleaner to pick up my costume, went over to the bank to pick up my motorcycle, then went over to the precinct to talk to my dad. "Jake! You're alright!" He called out when I walked in. Bruce Wayne was there too. "What's going on?" I asked when I stepped in. "I have history with the Joker." My dad told me. "Say again?" He explained the story to me.

"When I was a kid, the Joker went by Jack Napier and we were close friends." My dad started to say. "Until he tried robbing a chemical plant called Ace Chemicals in Gotham City." Bruce continued. "He had a helmet on and went by the Red Hood. Batman had him cornered on a catwalk and he fell into a vat of chemicals… transforming him into the Joker, a psychotic, perpetually-grinning villain." Bruce continued. "He was one of my first arrests." My dad continued. "Wait…" I said. "Perpetually-grinning?" I repeated to myself. "Bruce, have you or Robin tangled with this Joker person recently?" Bruce looked confused. "Quite recently. Why?" "A psychotically grinning guy…" I think my dad might've picked up on what I was thinking about. "What are you getting at?" I hope.

"Villain… attacking people… grinning… Bruce, what's his MO?" Bruce still looked confused. For a giant talking bat, he's sure not quick to the draw. He started explaining while my dad closed the door and blinded the windows. "His usual plan of attack involves childish pranks but they can get elaborate. His sometimes non-lethal tools is a type of laughing gas that, if untreated in time, can be fatal." My dad and I both looked at each other. "You thinking what I'm thinking?" I asked him.

My dad, Bruce, and I ended up in the cases office looking through the cold cases. "Okay, last time I was here, I saw a case that caught my eye, but there should be another file here…" I was looking through the old cases from 18 years ago… and found the one I was looking for. "Dad, remember? She died with a smile on her face. The case file says she survived the accident, but died moments later with a smile. There weren't any witnesses until a while after the accident, in which time, she died due to a lack of oxygen to the brain; she died laughing." "It was the Joker." I heard Bruce say. I clenched my fists hard.

"This is personal!"

To be continued


	32. Full House

Scorpion Warrior

Chapter 32

[In the last chapter, the death of Lana Smith, Jake's mom, will finally be solved. But is Jake gonna take it further?]

"Jake, what do you mean?" My dad asked me. "Don't you understand, Dad? We could finally take this guy down. I escaped from their hangout, so I might be able to lead you there." My dad looked at me for a second before sitting down at his desk. "Jake… that was 18 years ago." That one sentence just killed my enthusiasm. "What are you saying?" "Don't you think you should let this go?" I was shocked at what he said. "Dad… the Joker killed Mom… your best friend killed your wife. Don't you want to do something about it?" I asked him, still shocked. "I just don't have the energy to worry about all that anymore." He replied. "That was 18 years ago. I stopped worrying about that a long time ago." "But…"

I was interrupted by the police scanner telling of a fire downtown; the location sounding really familiar. "That was where they took me. Superman's off world… we should get going." I said to Bruce, who nodded in response. I was about to follow Bruce but looked back at my dad first. "At least think about helping." Then I walked out and followed Bruce.

Hours later, Batman and I, as Scorpio, showed up at the site of the almost-put-out fire, and I helped put the rest of it out by slinging net-webbing at whatever was left. "Cool, so the webbing isn't flammable." I said to myself. "Thanks for the help, Scorpio." One of the firemen said to me. I walked over to Batman. "Well this is it. That was the place where they kidnapped me." "What I'm wondering is how you escaped with little trouble at all." Bats said. "What are you saying? That they experimented on me or something?" I asked him. "Why would they? Nobody outside the Justice League and your family know who you are." He replied. 'And almost every single villain I've gone up against.'

My thought was interrupted by one of the on-scene detectives. "Hello Batman, I was wondering if you would be able to help us identify who the body in there is." "There's a body in there?" Batman and I both said at the same time, I was more shocked about it. "There's no way to tell who it is by DNA, since the body's too charred…" Batman said. He stuck his gloved fingers on the guy's face. "Oracle, Scorpio and I are at the site of the fire and there's a body there." I sighed. 'Me without my comm link.' "I'm sending you some pictures of the body and a scan. Would you be able to identify who it is?" He was quiet for a bit before standing up. "His name is Nick Green." I looked at him wide eyed. "She figured all that out from some pictures and whatever you used when you touched his face?" "Nick and Oracle are former lovers." That. Was. Awkward.

Later that day, Batman and I were hanging out in the batcave trying to figure out what happened. "So we already established the cause of the fire in the building." Batman started. "I think it's because I escaped from there and they were afraid I'd bring the police." I said. "Or worse." Robin cracked. "I need some time to think." Batman said, so Robin and I went over to the batcave's garage. I looked over to make sure no one was listening. "If you're worried about Bats finding out that you know, don't worry. He was more impressed by the fact that you figured it out." "What can I say? My dad's the chief of police, best detective Metropolis has ever had." I replied. "So anyway, how long have you been Batman's partner?" "Well…" He started.

"It was around the time my family was murdered. My uncle survived, but he was paralyzed. So, for the next month, Bats trained me and eventually I became Robin." I looked pale. "Something wrong?" He asked me. "I… only became Scorpion Warrior during my final months of high school… almost a year after I saw your last show…" I said out loud. Robin started laughing. Hard. He even fell back in his chair. "I have more experience than you do!" "Then why am I in the Justice League?" I said cheekily. It took him a second to calm down and stop laughing. "That was low. Just you wait, I'll get better than you one day." I was about to rub a couple of my major accomplishments in his face before Batman interrupted us. "Jake, Robin, come down here."

Robin went down the stairs while I did a web yoyo and hung upside down next to him. "That's one of the guy's who kidnapped me." I said. "Oracle just told me that they stopped seeing each other because Nick joined the Joker's gang a long time ago." "Wow Bats, you're spreading gossip? Careful Robin, next thing we know, he's gonna join the football team and start picking on us nerds." Robin started giggling. "Oh please don't give us swirlies Bats." We were both laughing so hard at that point. I couldn't even keep a grip on my web and I fell to the floor of the batcave, laughing.

Except for Bruce, who didn't even crack a smile. "Are you guys done?" He asked us. I tried to get serious, but I still had some giggles left. Robin, however… "Jock? He'd be more like in the Goth group." Robin and I just fell to floor, laughing harder than earlier. After a few moments, we finally started to calm down. "Okay… yeah, I think we're done now." I said. "Good, cause I probably would've had to give you guys detention." Bats said, finally cracking a bit of a smile.

"Just keep going Bats." Robin said, both of us trying not to giggle. "Anyway, Oracle also ran a crime pattern analysis. The Joker's gang is hitting a lot of high profile banks." "The next hit looks like it'll be Gotham National Bank." Robin said. "I'd love to see the look on Joker's face when I pound it into the ground." I said angrily. "Jake," Batman said, snapping me out of it. "If you can't control your feelings, you'll have to stay out of this." I took a deep breath and calmed down. "Thanks Bats, I needed that." Robin and I looked at each other. "Last one there buys the donuts?" He suggested and we both took off towards the garage. With our motorcycles ready to speed off at a moment's notice, Robin and I took off as soon as the garage opened up.

Almost fifteen minutes later, I finally got to the bank that Batman suspected would be the next hit… along with Batman AND Robin, who got there before me. But hey, they know this place like the back of their hands. As promised, I got about five dozen assorted types of donuts, along with a new comm link…

"At last." "What happened to you old comm anyway?" Robin asked me. "I think I lost it after I fought my sister." I said, then took a bite of a jelly-filled and got almost a ton on my S. "Oh come on!" "Be quiet Jake." Batman scolded. "Ha ha, you're in trouble." Robin teased. "He said quiet." I teased back.

Some time passed and there was nothing. I've been having no luck with trying to keep the jelly in because there was jelly all over my costume. Then I just gave up with that and started on the donut holes. "Oh you're a slob Jake." Robin teased again. Eventually, the Joker and his gang got here and went inside the bank. With my mask on… "Time to go to work." I jumped off the roof of the building we were on and slammed feet first into the guy guarding the door.

They weren't expecting company since it looks like none of them brought any weaponry. The dynamic duo joined the party and helped me take out all the goons… which was relatively easy considering all the fights I've been in in the past. After taking out the last of the goons, I was scanning the room for Joker… until I realized I have no idea who he is. "So… where is he?" Robin was wide eyed and pointed behind me. I turned around to see a huge bazooka pointed right in my face.

"Hello Batman!" The scary clown holding the bazooka said. "C-clowns… why… did it have to be a clown…?" The whole irony of this situation is that I wasn't scared of the bazooka as I was of the clown holding it. "Jake…? What are you doing?" Robin asked me when I backed up next to him. "What's wrong boy? Amazed by my presence?" The clown said. "When I was a kid, before she died, my mom took me to a circus. I had a horrible experience with a clown and ever since, I couldn't stop being scared stiff at even a picture of a clown or somebody with clown makeup." I explained to them. "Y'know… that sounds familiar…!" The clown said with an insanely freaky grin. I was trying to keep my fright under control. "W-what do you mean?"

"Oh… when was it…" He chuckled a little while said that. "Oh, it's been a long time since then…" He was making weird faces while he was thinking. "Come on, Bats. Help me out here! Boy Blunder?" I turned to them. "Wait… you know this clown?" The clown gave another devilish grin. "Wait…" I was able to focus enough even with a clown here enough to remember this morning at the bank. "**You're the Joker?**" "Bingo! Somebody give the kid a prize." After that realization, all the fright turned into anger. And it was directed all at the clown standing there. I don't think I had an angrier look on my face. "**You killed that poor woman!**" Robin had a worried look on face. "Scorpio! Calm down now!" "**NO BATMAN!**" I think I actually scared HIM rather than him scaring everybody else.

I looked toward the Joker seething with rage. "Why are you getting so worked up for?" I practically tore my mask off. "**I WAS THAT WOMAN'S SON!**" He put a scared face on. "Oh, please have mercy on me! I wasn't thinking." But then he started laughing uncontrollably. "What the hell's wrong with you? You're a monster!" "Oh well…" He aimed the bazooka at me and started to pull the trigger. "Say hi to her when you see her again, kay?"

He almost fired the rocket, but I stopped the end of the barrel by jamming it with a ton of webbing. Then I kept shooting more web balls at it, ending the barrage by snagging it, pulling it out of his hands, and smashing it on the floor as hard as I possibly could.

Next, I walked over to him and punched him square in the nose with enough force to practically shatter it. I was about to pummel him even harder, but Batman stopped me by grabbing my wrist and pulling me back. I think seeing a color other than red actually calmed me down because the second I saw Batman's face, I just felt like all my rage died with that one punch.

In fact… it did. Just punching Joker's lights out was more than enough. I just fell to my knees and buried my face in my hands.

A few days later, I visited my mom's grave and told her everything.

"Hi mom…" I said when I got to the foot of her grave. "I wish I could visit as much as I can. But I've been a bit busy… being a superhero…! Just like you." I wanted to be excited about saying that to her, but I still couldn't get over what happened a few days ago. "I brought the guy who did this to you to justice… finally…" I chuckled a little at what I just said. "I'm a member of the Justice League. The irony, right? Well I think I finally beat my fear of clowns. I know you'd be proud of me." My spider sense buzzed, but not as much as if a huge threat was about to hit. 'What? Here?'

I turned around and saw two clowns, and Miss Martian, looking right at me, causing me to almost scream bloody murder and I fell right on my mom's grave, almost breaking the headstone. I heard Wally's voice laughing. "Jerk!" I said to him. "I think being the operative word." Wally said as he fell backwards laughing. "Really, Robin? You too?" "I'm sorry Jake, I tried talking them out of it, but Wally kept insisting." Megan said as she looked down at Wally in contempt. Robin helped me up and pulled out some cloths for him and Wally.

I turned back to my mom's grave and introduced her to them. "Mom, these are my friends and just about half the kids of the team I'm helping to babysit." The word babysit was said with emphasis towards Wally and he and Robin finally wiped the freakish clown makeup off. "I apologize for my friends, Mrs. Smith." Megan said while looking down at the grave. "I'm Megan, and these are Wally and Robin."

I placed my mom's favorite flowers on her grave, promised her that I'd try to come back "If I'm not getting kicked around", then left with Wally and Megan while Robin went over to another grave. After a while of wondering, he finally came back, explained his family being there, and we left on Megan's ship.


	33. Freezer Burn

Scorpion Warrior

Chapter 33

The day starts with me breathing hard, drenched in sweat, after waking up from a nightmare. '6:48 in the morning…' "This thing about Joan…" I fell back onto the bed and tried going back to sleep, until my phone rang. "Thank you Phone. Didn't really wanna go to sleep again anyway." "Hey Jake, it's Emil." The voice on the other end said when I answered it. Emil, just the guy I wanted to hear from. "Gimme the good news, Doc."

A while after we trapped Joan in that wormhole in the Avengers universe, Barry had an idea to take away powers using technology similar to my Kryptonite absorbing powers, so he took the idea to Dr. Emil Hamilton, one of the scientists who works at STAR Labs, and he got to work. And a few months later… "I got that absorbing gun ready for use at any time you want it." I breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you so much Emil. After my nightmare about my sister, I'd need some good news." Did I forget to mention he knows about the Justice League? My bad. "By the way, did you test it on anybody yet, Doc?" I asked him. "No… and I was about to ask if you'd be my first subject." He replied. "You… want me… to give up my powers as a test?" I asked him, a little confused. "Oh, you won't be giving them up. I took that into account and stuck a reverser switch on the gun."

I heard the phone beep. "Hang on, Doc. Got another call." I switched to the other line. "Jake! Get over here now!" I heard my dad yell like he was in trouble. "Dad, what's wrong? I hear gunfire and explosions!" "We need you!" He yelled the place to me. "Let me get ready. I'll be there." I switched to the other line. "Emil, looks like we'll get your test subject after all." I gave him the address, then left the apartment complex and ducked into an alley across the street so I could change into my costume without anybody knowing anything. 'Man… I really wish I could fly right about now.' But since I couldn't fly, it actually took about an hour longer than it would if I could fly. "Scorpio! Finally!" My dad called out. There was one cop on the ground, half a SWAT car was frozen, and the entrance to the law office was frozen solid. I looked at my dad with a confused look in my eyes. "The SWAT got here, they were helping us, some dude in a strange suit with a gun unlike anything I've ever seen froze the SWAT car, then he and his men escaped to the building and the entrance was frozen. "Suit? Frozen?"

I walked over to the SWAT car after figuring it was clear, then crept over to the entrance to the office. My spider sense wasn't going off, so it was all good to go. 'Batman's out and Robin's at school. Superman's off world and Hal's… wherever the Green Lanterns go off to when they go off planet too…' I tried punching the ice to at least crack it. The ice didn't even get dented. My hand on the other hand… let's just say I've felt pain unlike any kind I've ever felt before.

"Hey Batman, you busy?" I was finally able to say something after the pain went away. All I got was static, so I decided to send Robin a message. [D, it's J. B's out, need R. When he's not busy.] [Nt unles u cn bal me out.] I looked up to the rest of the police and noticed Emil just arrived. "Well, Robin's busy, and the rest of the Justice League who might be able to help… can't. What now?" "I guess the only other option is to wait them out. See if there are any hostages, and what their demand are." My dad said. "With your agility, you'll be best suited to scout." "Right. Crawl through the air ducts, check on this guy in the suit, make sure there are no hostages." I ran to the office, crawled up to an air duct, and dove in.

So far, there are no hostages. Until I got to the last room and saw a lot of people nearly cramped in there. But I only saw one guy pacing the room with an MP5. From what I saw, there was nobody else there. 'Who would try and knock him out while he's keeping an eye on everybody?' I smashed through the air duct grate and landed on the guy. "I would." I turned to the hostages and shot a web up to the grate. "Everybody, get up there and go that way." I pointed the direction opposite the way I came. "That would surely attract some kind of attention." Over the next few minutes or so, I was able to get everybody up into the air duct. 'Wow… am I really that sneaky? Or is this a soundproof room?' Either way, I leapt up into the air duct and pulled the guy I K. up with me along with the grate. This time it only took me a half hour to get back to the roof of the office, as opposed to the two minutes it took to get to the back room.

I emerged from the duct and helped everybody get down to the ground. "So what's the news, Scorpio?" My dad asked. "Well… it was certainly colder than a freezer when I went to rescue the hostages." I explained to him. "But while I was crawling through the air duct, I happened to see some rooms…" "That looked like they should be in the Iceberg Lounge?" I heard a familiar voice say. "I was gonna say that they should be in an adaptation of Justice Guild on Ice." I said to Robin. "When did you get here?" "About a half hour ago. I finished what I was doing and came straight here. Chief Smith filled me in about what's going on and it sounds like Mr. Freeze." He said. "Mr. Who?" "Freeze. Victor Fries. His body became unable to handle temperatures above subzero after an accident, so he needs a special suit to survive." I looked towards the office, a little sad. "Whoa. Poor guy." "Don't feel sorry for him! He's one of Batman and I's more dangerous enemies." "Maybe I could help with that." Another familiar voice said from behind me. "Dr. Hamilton?" Robin said. "How'd I not see you?" I asked out loud once I saw him.

"Robin, your description of this Mr. Freeze person gave me an idea." Emil started to say. "Use Frosty the Freezer as your first guinea pig?" I asked him jokingly. "That's right." Emil told me. "Unfortunately, the gun can't pierce anything. It needs complete physical contact. You'll need to expose some part of his body in order for the gun to take effect." I took the gun from Emil and turned towards the office. "Scorpio, wait!" Robin told me. I looked at him and grinned. "Don't worry, Robin. I'll be okay." "Word of advice: Watch out for his gun. I almost died of hypothermia the first time Batman and I fought him." 'Hypothermia…?' My face changed from a look of confidence to an unnerved look, but I tried hiding it behind a pretty bad looking poker face.

I walked over to the wall and was almost about to crawl up it when I was stopped by Emil so he could teach me how to use the gun. I crawled back inside the air ducts. 'This is gonna make me claustrophobic, I swear.' So, recounting my steps, I looked through each of the rooms I looked through and they seemed more guarded than Fort Knox. 'Claustrophobic?' I heard Robin's voice in my head. That almost made me jump until I realized, 'Hey there Megan. When did you get here?' I asked. 'I just got here.' She replied. 'Conner and I were actually in school ourselves and we just got out.'

I was about to ask her about their first day until I realized two things: that they might've been there for a while, and because I got to the room that the people were being held in. 'Hang on guys, don't distract me right now.' I lowered myself to the floor of the room and hid behind a cover. 'These guys really don't seem to care about the guy I brought along with me.' I thought aloud. 'What do you mean?' Megan asked. 'Oh right. I forgot about the psychic link.' I explained what I did to her and what happened. 'Hello Megan! That explains the ambulances.' I got a nervous look on my face. 'Okay… only two guys there… and neither of them saw me.' I snuck out to the doorway, snagged their feet with some webbing, and pulled as hard as I could, pulling them down to the floor and knocking them out. I wrapped them in some web cocoons and stashed them in the corners of the room, away from any views of the other thugs.

I heard one of the other thugs coming this way, so I hopped to the ceiling and waited for him. He actually walked in after I hopped up to the ceiling, almost ruining my stealthiness. 'Crap!' He saw the cocoons in the corners, which forced me to drop to the floor and get him in a sleeper hold. He lost consciousness in a few seconds, so I wrapped him up in a cocoon as well and stowed him up against the wall like the others. 'Robin, can you cut the power to the office? It's too bright in here to go into stealth costume.' I hopped up back into the air duct and dragged the three other guys with me since somebody might come and see them.

Within a few minutes of asking, all the lights in the office turned off, but it didn't seem like it to me. 'Robin, the lights are still on.' Until I heard complaining from the rest of the thugs and one telling another to go check the circuit breakers. 'Wait… you already did, didn't you?' I asked again after correcting my mistake. 'Yeah. What's up?' He replied. 'I can still see as good as if the lights were still on.' 'Is that another power? Spider-sight?' 'I don't know.' Then I remembered the Cadmus Incident and how Zatara got my costume onto me without doing anything. 'Hey Robin, tell Batman to thank Zatara for me when he sees him again.'

I hopped back to the floor then back to the ceiling, sneakily snagging thugs here and there. Eventually, I got to a part of the ceiling that I couldn't quite get a grip on. I figured that out the hard way: As I was crawling, I would let go with one hand as soon as the other hand touched the surface, but while I was crawling, something must've happened that knocked out the wall crawling part of my powers, because I fell off the ceiling, belly flopping right on the floor. Glad I had the gun at my hip. 'Ice? I must be getting close.' 'Be careful Jake.' Robin said to me. I looked at the gun and hid it in a corner. 'Hold on, Jake.' Robin said. 'The gun might be useful.' I decided to bring it with me.

It was getting a whole lot colder as I was going. Eventually, I felt like I couldn't move. But I kept going out of sheer force of will.

Soon, I got to a REALLY cold ass part of the floor and saw a big helmet? "I wouldn't walk any closer, young man." That made me fall backwards in surprise. "How'd you know I was here?" He held up a big gun. "I don't need to reveal that. As for you," He pointed the gun at me. 'Ooohhh… crap.' "Prepare to die." My spider sense blared. Like so much so that it felt like a jackhammer pounding right on my head. I ducked behind of as soon as he fired, leaving a layer of ice in the same spot. 'Robin… you there?' The atmosphere was really starting to get to me. I couldn't concentrate on anything, I was so friggin cold. 'G-g-great… I lost connection. Is that even possible?' "Come on out Scorpio. I promise you your death will be as quick and as painless as I can make it." That sounded close. My spider sense buzzed again, so I ducked behind one of the desks. 'G… g-g-gotta… end this n-n-now. Spider sense… please tell me the second he fires that weird gun… I h-have an idea.' I gathered all the strength in my legs that could and stood up. "Hey, F-Frosty!"

He turned around and looked right at me. "Well, Scorpio. Decide to accept your death gracefully?" He pointed his gun at me and it charged up. 'Okay arm, don't let me down!' "Don't worry… you won't feel a thing." Just like I hoped, my spider sense buzzed which told me to jam up the barrel, which I did with a web ball. That was all the strength I could muster in my arm, but it was just enough because right as it hit the barrel, the gun fired. But… without anywhere for the beam to go, the gun just went boom, cracking part of the glass hiding his face. I gathered more strength in my arms, shot some webs to either side of Frosty, pulled back a little bit, and shot myself like slingshot right at him, feet first, breaking a hole in the glass.

'Perfect!' With what little strength I had left, I pulled the gun out and shot it through the hole in the glass. His skin actually turned from an icy blue to an actual healthy looking human being. "What did you do to me?" He asked me. "I don't…" Was all I was able to say before I passed out.

"I'm… cold? What did he do to me?" There was an explosion at the front door, which destroyed the ice Frosty made before I got there. Batman and the entire SWAT team rushed in. The SWAT all rushed to the back of the store while Batman rushed over to me and Frosty. "Batman?" He said. "Freeze? What's going on? What happened to Scorpio?" Bats asked Freeze hurriedly. "I don't know. He passed out from the cold air."

A little while later, we were all outside while the SWAT team put Freeze's thugs in the vans. I woke up a while ago with a heavy blanket around my shoulders and a cup of hot chocolate in my hands. "Batman," I heard Freeze say. 'Uh oh…' "I feel cold. Help me out of this suit." Everybody, Batman, Robin, everybody who knew about him was shocked, except I wasn't as shocked as Batman and Robin. "What did you do in there?" Robin asked me while Batman helped Freeze out of the suit. "How… how do you feel, Mr. Freeze?" Robin asked him. "I feel fine… I don't need the suit anymore!"

I grinned and tossed the gun to them. "Robin told me some of what's going on with you, Freeze. I figured that that gun could help cure you." He walked over to me and wrapped his arms around my neck. "Thank you so much, Scorpio. Thanks to you, I don't have to be confined to that suit anymore. I can feel a summer breeze and the touch of another human being." I awkwardly pat his back and he let me go while he stared at the gun I tossed him.

"What're you gonna do now, Mr. Freeze?" I asked him. "Please, Scorpio, I don't want to be reminded of that, so please, call me Victor." He replied. He looked as if there was a huge weight taken off his shoulders. It made me happy to know that he's happy again despite his actions and his past. "Scorpio… do you know what you have here?" He asked me. "A gun that Dr. Hamilton invented that could help keep my sister from destroying me by taking away the powers of super-humans?" I replied. He looked at me curiously. "Long story. Continue?" "What you have here is the key to Earth's longevity!" I looked at him confused, but I was kind of starting to get it. "Don't you understand? If this technology is altered, you could cure cancer. Nora…" I thought for a second. "You know, Victor, why don't you take that one. I don't expect my sister to come back anytime soon, so you can go ahead and take it." I saw Emil walk over. "Actually, Scorpio, I still have the blueprint to the gun."

A little while later, there was a press conference in front of City Hall. Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson were present in the audience outside of their Batman and Robin identities. Clark was there along with Lois and Jimmy Olsen, a new guy I met at the Daily Planet one time, taking press pictures of the conference. My dad was standing up at the podium giving a speech, and Victor and Nora Fries and Dr. Hamilton were sitting next to me. After my dad finished his speech, he invited Victor up to make a speech too.

"If it weren't for the collective efforts of Dr. Emil Hamilton and the superhero, Scorpio, I would not have found the cure for my beloved wife's disease, nor would I have been freed from that accursed Mr. Freeze," I walked up to the podium. "And for that, Scorpio, I am forever in your debt." He said to me. "My fellow Americans…" I said into the microphones to the Audience. "Whoops, wrong opening. Wouldn't want to get in trouble with John F. Kennedy." I continued. That part was met with a few laughs. "But seriously, everybody, I don't care about what Victor did in the past. I know he might have hurt us all, but all he was doing was helping out his wife, right? But I helped cure HIM of his affliction, and somewhat helped him reunite with his wife. So what do you all say? Victor here is forgiven?" "I have a question for you, though." Said Lois. "Why are you calling him Victor? Surely a man of his profession would prefer to be Dr. Fries." I looked to Victor and let him have the microphone. "Had it not been for the accident that turned me into the monster known as Mr. Freeze, I would have preferred to be called Dr. Fries. But I want to put that all behind me and start a new life not as Dr. Fries, but as Victor."

Cameras started flashing as I started to grip Victor's hand but I hesitated after realizing he spent so long in that refrigerated suit then took off my glove and gripped his hand with my own hand in a big handshake, then turned towards the audience again. "I woke up this morning, scared out of my mind, after having a nightmare. Then took an hour swinging downtown. Got the hostages out of the office. And saved Victor from himself. And it's not even nine o'clock." That was met with a little more laughs than before.


	34. An interesting proposition

Scorpion Warrior

Chapter 34

"Nothing to do…" One day, I was sitting around my dad's apartment with nothing to do, so I decided to go out patrolling. 'Wonder where Dad is…' I crawled up to the roof of the apartment building, got into my costume, then started swinging around the city.

'Wow… even patrol's gotten boring.' I landed on a rooftop just as my spider sense kicked in. I turned around quickly to see what was going on, but I got a huge blast of… I don't even know WHAT hit me. I landed hard on the other side of the roof. "Oh man… did somebody get the number of the truck that hit me…?" And that headache isn't helping. I walked to the edge of the rooftop to try and get a look at what's going on, but my spider sense kicked in again, so I backflipped out of the way just in time to see some of the roof get blasted away. 'Okay… that was dangerous.' I crawled over to the hole and poked my head through it. 'Hmm… whatever that blast was had to have left some kind of after trail. Okay Giovanni… time to see what this magical mask can do.

'So it has… some kind of night vision. Does it have infrared?' As if on cue, my entire field of vision turned purple; I realized I was in a tube-like field. "WHOA!" I jumped back after realizing what was going on, then covering my mouth after realizing how loud that was. 'Okay, so it's all red, except for the purple tube. Better not give this to a bull.' I looked through the holes again to find out that the tube came from a guy? 'Telescopic vision?' Then it all zoomed in. 'Best present I've ever gotten from anyone, ever! Does this mask get cable? Okay, infrared stop.' The infrared vision disappeared, leaving me looking at a kid spinning around. He seemed to be looking for something. 'Normal vision.' The mask let me see normally again as I shot some webbing to the two sides of the hole, pulled myself back, then let myself shoot through the hole… right at the kid.

"Heads up!" I slammed right into the kid feet-first as soon as he turned around, and we slid for a few feet. "So buddy, what's with turning the city into Swiss cheese?" He blasted me with whatever he used to Swiss cheese the city faster than my spider sense could warn me and launched me halfway across the park. "Oh… my head…" 'Okay mask, give me x-ray. I need something to beat him.' The mask gave me the x-ray I asked for, which gave me a pure skeletal picture of him… except a big metal thing in the middle of his chest. 'Is that…?' "The name's Boom! Don't know why you should remember it, since my boss put a bounty on you. Dead or alive." He doubled over, but not in pain. He was planning on blasting me right here. 'Oh no! A blast like that'll tear apart!' "Say goodbye Scorpio!" Boom called out. I shot a web at that thing in his chest right before he fired it, which caused it to backfire and explode on him, launching him backwards.

I walked over to him and was almost about to check his pulse before I heard him groan and clutch that thing in his chest… or what's left of it. "Boom? Not anymore." I contacted the Justice League on my comm link. "Scorpio here. I'm gonna need a pickup… that little park on the corner of Fifth and Grand… it's the area that got turned into Swiss cheese… can't you ever be serious for once Flash? Just for that, you're paying for a spa trip. This guy really did a number to me… ow…" I rotated my head around and pulled my arms across my chest. 'A SERIOUS number on me.' I saw one of the Justice League javelins hover down. As soon as it touched down, I saw Batman walk out and over to me and Boom. All I could say to him was, "Don't even ask." He looked at me for a second before handcuffing Boom and lifting him up to take to the javelin. Boom looked at me, though, and said, "No wonder my boss wants you dead."

Some time later, I was back at my dad's apartment since the spa place I passed by was closed. "Hi fluffy… comfy… cushion… I missed you… I promise I won't ever leave you again…" I said when I fell down onto my bed… but that was before I heard a thump outside my room. "The hell?" My spider sense wasn't warning me to anything, so it seemed safe. But I ducked behind the kitchen counter anyway to try to one up him. I leapt up from behind the counter, only to realize it was just my dad sitting at the table.

"Hey Jake, you're up late." "Nah, I decided Scorpio should do some patrolling, so I went out." I looked inside the fridge. "Then some wacko with an amp in his chest tried to kill me and bring in the bounty some guy put on my head. Did a real number on me." I pulled out a bag of ice from the freezer and put it right on the sore areas of my body. 'That feels good…' "Jax-Ur! I've been looking everywhere for you!" I heard Karen say. That confused me. 'Who's Jax-Ur?' "Ix-nay on the Ax-Ur-Jay, Karen." I heard my dad say. 'Does he know this Jax-Ur person?' "Dad?" I called out. "Jake!" I heard her call out. She flew over to me and gave me a big hug and kissed me.

I completely ignored her and looked at my dad. "Dad…? Who's Jax-Ur? And why was Karen calling you that?" "Jake, why didn't you tell me your dad was Jax-Ur? He's a…" By the way she interrupted herself, and the confused look on my face, I'm sure she finally understood what was going on. "There's more to the story… isn't there Dad?" I looked at him with a confused look on my face. "My name really isn't Michael… it's Jax-Ur. I'm a scientist from Krypton who used to work for a psycho named General Zod. But I quit after we had a falling out." He replied. "So wait, what does that make me? Your stepson?" I asked again. "No Jake, you're my biological son. You're half-Kryptonian, half-human-with-Kryptonian-powers." "I KNEW there was something about you I liked, Jake." Karen said.

"But wait… if I'm part Kryptonian, how come I never had my powers until the accident?" I asked him. "The Kryptonite in your mom's system cancelled out my side." "But if she had kryptonite in her system, how could you go near her when the rest of us are weakened by kryptonite?" My dad took the ring off of his hand after Karen's question and his eyes went from an icy blue to a bit of a bright green. He then grabbed a fork and tried stabbing himself in the chest, only for it to get bent once it hit his skin. "It's a ring made of blue kryptonite. When I met your mom, Jake, I couldn't go anywhere near her. But I found out about blue kryptonite, and I've used some as a necklace, and eventually a wedding ring."

"How come you never told me?" I asked him. "I've wanted to tell you plenty of times when you were younger, but kids are so impressionable. I tell you that your father has superpowers that weren't passed onto you, you'd probably go out and hurt yourself." "And I would too." I replied with a bit of a chuckle. "But it really surprised me when I found out you had Kryptonian powers." He continued. "Actually, I only had the strength, invulnerability, and flight at the time, but I kept developing them as I went on."

Batman interrupted us by calling me on my comm link. "Jake, there's someone here who wants to talk to you." "Alrighty, Bats. I'll be there soon." And just like I said, Scorpio was there soon after I left my dad's apartment. "So Bats, city in danger? Cat in a tree? How can I help?" I'm not sure why, but I was psyched for some reason. "You remember Mason, don't you?" Batman straight out asked me. I feigned a look of confusion. Mason Dreiberg. He helped Jake by giving me advice during my last murder case. "Who?" I asked him innocently.

"A guy fights a few clowns and monsters and forgets his old friend, huh, Jake?" Said an all-too-familiar voice. "Mason? How long have you known?" I replied, finally giving up and taking off Scorpio's mask. "Wasn't too hard… you're terrible at disguising your voice." He replied with a chuckle. "Didn't think about disguising my voice…" He said, looking a little embarrassed. "When did you figure it out?" "That's not important." Mason replied sternly as two figures stepped out from the shadows like Batman does when he's stalking thugs. One of them was a white ninja. The other, a boy dressed in a black shirt and jeans. 'Conner?' "Wait, who are they?" Mason grinned. "Boy… do I have a story for you."


	35. Yet Another Blast from the Past

Scorpion Warrior

Chapter 35

"Hey Mason, where's the thing you said you were gonna get?" (How did it get to this? I'm fighting a T-Rex…) It tried stomping me, but I dived out of the way and trapped its foot with some webbing. (Me… a big time superhero, although reduced to babysitting, is fighting a T-Rex… could things GET any worse?) "No dice, Jake." I heard him say. "It's not powerful enough to stop something this big." (Apparently they can…) "Oh great, plan B then." I climbed to its head and into its mouth. (I hate plan B.) "I love plan B."

[30 minutes ago]

(We had just left the Watchtower and were in Ohio.) "So, where's the rest of the team?" I asked Mason. (While we were still on the Watchtower, after a buttload of bugging, I got him to tell me what the story was… on the condition that our destination was a surprise. So now instead of warping to our destination, we warped about five miles away, and he told me about the story on our way.)

"So after I found out about Scorpio, I was a little jealous about your powers." Mason said. "So he hired us to start out with his little team," Jason Clark said. "Emphasis on little…" Jagger Chen said. "So it's just you guys then?" I asked. "Well duh. I was hoping to hire you to get started." Mason said. (And then we got to our destination, and…) "Holy crap! It's big!" (It might've even been as big as the Avengers Mansion.)

After we walked in, and I finally stopped geeking out and calmed down, the team told me about themselves. Jason was… interesting. To say the least. "I found him after a lightning storm." Mason said to me. "Right now, I don't even know where I came from. But all I know is that I spoke your language right away." Jason continued. "Yeah, I was on patrol when I found him." I looked at Jagger. "And what about Mr. Ninja?" I saw him grin. "I like that name." "Anyway, this is actually Jagger's house." I wasn't even surprised anymore. "Really? You were surprised by the house, but not by how we got it?" "In the Avengers universe, Tony Stark owned a mansion. It didn't really surprise me this time." I told him matter-of-factly. "So, Jagger's the CEO of his own company and that's how he bought the house." Mason said. "He came to me with his proposal and about you; I liked it, and here you are."

An alarm scared the living crap out of me and Jagger rushed over. "What in God's name is that?" I called out after Jagger shut the alarm off and I calmed down. "That is Jagger's alarm system. Don't worry, you'll get used to it." Mason said calmly. "But why does it have to be a bank alarm? Can it be something that WON'T give me a heart attack?" Mason completely ignored me and looked towards Jagger. "So, what's going on?" "Downtown's being attacked…" Jagger started. "By…?" I asked, a little hurriedly. "By a T-Rex." He said. "A T-Rex? From the past?" "Doesn't appear to be any temporal rifts." He replied without taking his eyes off the screen. "Though it does look familiar." I threw my shirt off, revealing part of my costume. "Just point me in the right direction. I'll take care of the rest." I put the mask on and was almost out the door when I was stopped by Mason. "Wait, we're coming with you." "No offense, Mason, but you're just a cop. Although you could provide backup." I looked towards Jagger. "Jagger, you're with me." "No, I need to figure something out." He sped out the door, leaving me alone with Mason and Jason.

(And that brought us to now. I didn't really know if Jason had any powers, and neither did he, so Mason stayed behind to help him out… and I started out the fight against this giant T-Rex with its frikkin tail slamming me into a wall. Which hurt. And now for plan B.)

I climbed into the T-Rex's mouth and… found robotic stuff at the back of the throat? "Mason? Why am I looking at robotic stuff at the back of the T-Rex's throat?" I asked him over the comm link. "You mean it's a robot?" I heard him reply. "Unless a new definition for robotic stuff made it into Webster's Dictionary, then I think it would be safe to assume that it's a robot…" I said curiously. "I got it!" I heard Jagger's voice on the comm as I lowered myself down the T-Rex's throat. "Okay, then explain. How was it familiar?" "A theme park asked Chen Enterprises to fund a project to make animatronic Jurassic era robots for their new Jurassic Park section." I landed on the floor of the T-Rex's insides and looked around for a way to shut it down. "Did you oversee the project?" I asked him. "No, I had more important engagements. But I was able to get schematics. Now, I hacked into your comm link and found your location in the T-Rex." I found a fuse box marked ENGINE for some reason… "This looks important." and punched it. "I was gonna give you instructions to shut it down…" Jagger started to say. "But my way was easier. And funner. And I'm not as good with technology as Batman."

As I was climbing back up the robot, I felt it lurch when I got back to the mouth. "What… was that…?" "That punch knocked out the gyroscope." I heard Jagger say over the comm. I was just sitting there, clinging to the wall, keeping absolutely still so nothing else will make the T-Rex fall. "Why was it so close to the box marked engine?" I asked while slowly crawling up the wall. "When I went to check on it, they thought they could save space by putting it close to the engine box." He replied. "Well… THAT worked out well…"

I slowly made my way to the mouth of the T-Rex, but it lurched again and started to fall backwards, so I shot some webbing at the back of the T-Rex's throat then to the street. "What happened Jake?" Mason asked. "I'll explain later." I said while trying to pull the two ends together. After that wasn't working, I twisted myself around so that my left arm was pointing out, while my right was pointing in. That did it. I was able to stick the two ends together. I went around the head and stuck the lines so the T-Rex couldn't fall.

Later that day, after Jagger picked up the T-Rex and sent it back to the drawing board, the Strikers and I were all hanging out at Jagger's place trying to figure out what happened with the T-Rex. "Malfunction?" I suggested. "Impossible." Jagger rebutted. "I may not oversee operations, but all my factories are of the highest quality." "Hacked?" Was Jason's turn in this little spitball circle we set up. "I don't think so. I don't keep blueprints in any computers and whatever computers I do own… let's just say it'd be easier to break in to Fort Knox." Jagger dismissed that idea. "Well then," Mason spoke up. "It's gotta be an inside job." Jagger and Jason looked at him, confused. I, however, started thinking. "Makes sense." I said. Now they looked at me confused. "Jagger, you said you don't oversee your factory operations. Does that include the employees?" I asked him. "Jake, I have hundreds of factories all over the country with hundreds working at each employee. Questioning each one would take years, if not decades." I just grinned. "Not if you only question those who worked on this animatronic project." Mason finally got what I was saying. "That's a good idea. Jagger, all you have to do is question those who worked on the T-Rex project."

After about a half hour of questioning the employees who were working on the T-Rex project, Mason and I narrowed the suspects down to only two employees. Mason took Ritchie Douglas, while I talked to Louis Anthony. I walked in and placed a cup of coffee in front of him with as much cream or sugar as he wanted. "What's going on?" He asked me. "I have a theory. Rather than being tough on suspects… I like to make them feel comfortable." Louis looked confused. "Suspect? Look kid, I'm a very busy man. Go play detective with your little friends somewhere else." 'Kid?' "Sir…" I said with a bit of sarcasm. "I'm a detective with Metropolis Police investigating…" "So where's your badge?" Louis interrupted. "I'm the son of the police chief. That enough credibility for you?" He just sat back in his chair sipping the coffee. "As I was saying… I'm investigating an incident that happened earlier this afternoon." He just chuckled a little. "The T-Rex malfunction was just a publicity stunt, wasn't it? I'm done here." He got up and headed for the door, but I stopped him with one little statement, "Who said it was a T-Rex?" "It was all over the news." He replied. "Some freak in a costume stopped it." I was resisting every urge to slap him silly. "Whoever said it was a malfunction?" He stood there for a moment before sitting back down.

"I can't say I know how you did it, and I don't necessarily care. I just want to know why." I said to him. "I don't know, man… I just thought it'd be fun to pull a prank. I mean the guy who contracted us gave us all a fixed salary. Some got more than they're normally paid, which I'm more or less happy for, and others got less. Like me. Which pissed me off to no end. I moved the gyroscope closer to the engine, rigged it so it was mobile rather than stationary, and let it loose."

"Does the name Jagger Chen sound familiar?" I asked him. "Well… so that's the guy who screwed with my salary, eh? Can't say I know him, but he's the owner of this building." "He also had to cover up the story by saying it was a publicity stunt. Nevertheless, it did damage his reputation quite a bit." I stood up and opened the door, only to see Jagger himself standing there. He pushed past me and looked Louis dead in the eye, "I want you packed up and out of here by the end of your shift." Then walked out without saying another word. 'Harsh…'


	36. Potential Green Lanterns?

Scorpion Warrior

Chapter 36

[When we last saw our hero, he had just interrogated one of Jagger Chen's employees… sorry, former employees… who was suspected to be behind the robotic T-Rex rampage. The suspicions were thought to be true, and Jagger fires him. Shall we see what happens next? Too late to answer, cause I'm going ahead with the chapter anyway.]

I caught up with Jagger after he left and asked him what was up. "That T-Rex caused a whole lot of damage downtown. If it wasn't for Scorpio, it might've been a whole lot worse. So for that, I thank you. But that's never happened before with my company. This was difficult to try and cover up." I could tell by the tone of voice that he was upset. Why wouldn't he? If something happened in Bruce or Lex's companies on their watch, they'd want it dealt with too. "No offense, and this might not be my place to say, but uh… wouldn't it be a good idea to, you know, oversee the projects you commission?" I asked him. He stopped walking. "Maybe, but what's done is done. Thank you again for helping to clean up the mess.

The next morning, I found a little diner where I ordered a big, juicy, double bacon cheeseburger as a reward for yesterday. Joining me and this ever-so-wonderful lunch was a family of 3, an old man with a pretty cool looking Hawaiian shirt, and a brother and sister, the brother wearing a t-shirt with literally a T on it, and the sister had a shirt with a cat on it. The brother looked at me and laughed a little, but I just shrugged it off. "Ugh… that is so disgusting." The sister said. 'Wow, glad I'm not her brother. Her voice…' "What's wrong with that? It's just a double bacon cheeseburger," The boy replied, sounding hungry. "I think I'll have that." Hey, I called it. "Well now I'm not talking about that," The girl said. "I'm talking about you now." I had to keep myself from laughing at that. 'Wow… if that was Joan…' "Ben, Gwen, cool it with the bickering now." The older man said. "Yeah, Ben. We're in a PUBLIC PLACE." Gwen retorted, the last part of her sentence was obviously meant as a stab towards the kid I assume would be Ben. "Then why couldn't we have left her in the Rustbucket?" Ben sounded angry. 'Sheesh, he reminds me of me as a kid when I was constantly bickering with the neighbor girl.'

I was about to take another bite out of my burger when I felt an all-too-familiar buzzing in my head and noticed a guy with a gun walking to the front entrance. 'Uh oh… he doesn't look too friendly.' I had to rush to the bathroom so I don't get caught in a hostage situation… again. 'Great! No window.' I got to my destination and into a stall just as the gunman got inside the diner. As I was stuffing my street clothes into my bag and getting into costume, I heard the door open again. 'OH CRAP! That's not the guy, is it?' I hopped up onto the toilet so the guy didn't notice my feet, but it was a different set of shoes, who ran into the stall next to me. Seconds later, there was a bright green flash and a red head grew from the stall. 'WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?' "Aw man! Not Fourarms! It's too tight in here!" I was staring, in shock. 'Is that… thing… that kid?'

That thing must've seen me, not surprising by his four eyes, and it just turned childish because it started geeking out for some reason. "Wait, YOU'RE Scorpio? I'm one of your biggest fans!" It took me a second to realize what he meant. 'Note to self… don't hesitate to put the mask on for anything.' "Can't talk now," I said as I finally slid the mask over my face and gelled my hair forward. "Got somebody to beat up before he hurts someone. Watch my bag." I was almost to the door, when that foureyed thing stopped me. "But I can help!" He called out. "Start by losing the muscle. Wait here." I walked out and presented myself in a heroic manner to the gunman. "Hey buddy…" He pointed his gun at me. "Hey! Get down now!" He shouted to me. "Aw wow. You didn't even let me finish my heroic banter. That's how these things go. The hero, me, and the moron who thinks he can get away with trying to shoot me, you, get a little banter going before the showdown." The gun was trained right at my face. "Get down now, before I blow your brains out!" "No magic word? For shame. Guess I gotta teach you some manners, don't you think?" I shot my webbing at him and caught the barrel of the gun on the other end of the strand, pulling it out of his hands and catching it. I pulled the slide back to see if there were any bullets in there. "Empty gun? Really? Thug 101: Always come prepared. As for me…" I chucked it right at his gut the way they do in those ninja shows I used to watch as a kid. "I'm never running out."

I walked over to him while he was doubling over on his knees in pain. I pushed him onto his stomach and caught his arms and legs in web so he couldn't get up. I picked up the gun and unloaded the magazine, actually revealing bullets. 'Whoa…' I looked at the amateur thug. "Didn't your mom ever teach you guns are bad?" I dashed back into the bathroom to change back into my street clothes just as that red alien disappeared and the kid dashed out. "Aw man!" He started complaining. "Did I miss all the fun?" "Careful Ben," I said while walking into the stall he just came out of and started to change back into my street clothes. "The guy was carrying. One slip up and something could've happened." "Wait, how do you know my name?" He asked me, not even paying attention to my warning. "I heard your sister call you that. By the way, name's Jake." I said as I walked over to the sink to rinse the gel out of my hair. Hey, he already knows I'm Scorpio, and I… that thing… so why not? "Whoa whoa whoa! Let's get one thing straight here: Gwen's not my sister. She's just my dweeby cousin." Ben said, a rather stern tone in his voice. "My bad."

So we walked out and I started eating my burger while Mason and, I would assume to be his partner, arrived and took the gunman away. Mason came back in, though, and sat down on the other side of the booth. "You're eating lunch without me?" He said jokingly. I had a mouthful of burger, so I just sat there and shrugged. Then I overheard Ben tell the rest of his party about what happened. "So, I tried to go XLR8, but the stupid Omnitrix turned me into Fourarms, so I couldn't do much trapped in the stall." "Good thing Scorpio was here to do YOUR job, Ben." Gwen said.

Mason look at me confused. "Accelerate? Four arms? Omnitrix?" He said quietly to me. "I'm just as lost as you. I just learned about all that myself." I replied as quietly as him. "That's just the thing," Ben continued. "I figured out who Scorpio is." My eyes went wide. "You didn't…" Mason said with an angry look on his face. "He saw me." I whispered back. His whole party looked this way. I was trying to casually eat my burger without tipping them off with my face. "Him?" Gwen said laughing. "No way. That couldn't be him. The hair's different you dweeb." Well now I just feel offended, but thank you Gwen. "I'm telling you the truth. He uses gel in his hair." "Mason… please tell me there's something going on somewhere else." I whispered to him. "And miss the fun going on behind us? I'd tell another unit to take care of it." The waitress walked over and gave me my check. "I'll just take the burger with me." I said to Mason as I slapped the money on the check and walked out of there.

"There. I saw him stick the costume in his bag." Ben and Gwen both chased after me. "Jake!" I turned around after I heard Ben. "My dweeby cousin here says you're Scorpio. Go ahead and tell him he's wrong." I sighed. "So Ben, secret identities don't mean anything, do they?" "Toldja!" He looked at Gwen with a victorious look on his face. "But what about that weird red thing?" I asked him. "Oh, we already know what he can do." I was about to say something else, but we were interrupted by the sound of an explosion nearby. "What… was that…?" Gwen asked. "I'm not sure, but it didn't sound pretty." I looked in the window toward Mason and he knew what I was getting at. About 10 minutes later, I got on my motorcycle after I got into character and got there with Ben, Gwen, and Mason following Ben's grandpa's RV. I still don't know why they insisted they'd help.

[10 minutes earlier]

Mason got up and rushed out the door with Gwen and their grandpa following behind; I came out from behind an alley after changing into the costume again. "Well well well…" Ben's grandpa started to say. "Ben's overactive imagination wasn't acting up this time." "Ben? What are they doing?" I asked him, referring to Gwen and his grandpa. "They're coming with us." Ben said, folding his arms. "You and Gwen?" I asked him. "Hey, we may not always get along…" Ben started. "Which is never." Gwen added. Ben shot her a not-so-subtle look. "We may not always get along," Ben repeated. "But Gwen and my grandpa are my family; we're a team." "I'm sorry Ben, they can't come. What if they get hurt?" I asked him. "Either they come with us, or I'm staying." I looked towards the sound of the explosion with a worried look on my face and another explosion sounded. 'No time for a debate, and whatever's going on over there, that red alien might be able to help.' I had to relent. "Mason's keeping an eye on you then." Gwen scoffed. "Oh don't worry about us."

[Now]

After the 10 minute drive, we finally arrived downtown, aka the source of the explosions. "Terrorist attack?" I asked Mason. "No," He replied. "Too scattered. Some of the terrorist attacks I've stopped were more… controlled. Whoever's doing this… is out for blood." "VILGAX!" Ben and Gwen said at the same time. "What in the world is a Vilgax?" I asked out loud. And then I got my answer in the form of a meteor dropping to the ground, creating a shockwave that sent me flying through the Rustbucket's windshield and to the back of the RV, while only making the RV budge about a foot. "This is one tough RV." Mason said. "We know." Ben and Gwen said at the same time again. "Okay… ow… you guys… gotta stop doing that." I said as I walked to the front. "Did somebody get the number of the truck that almost squashed me?" A bald, squid-chinned, I-don't-know-what-else with red, piercing eyes, red legs, a red body suit… wow this guy apparently likes red… and red lines throughout his arms and shoulders walked out of the smoke. "GRANDPA! DRIVE!" Ben shouted. Gramps was already on, because he stepped on the gas as hard as he could, suddenly going in reverse and launching me out the window; I fell on the asphalt, hard.

Fish-face stomped his big foot on me, while I tried to get it off of me. "So… you must be Vilgax. Do you mind not crushing my ribcage? My superhero insurance doesn't cover getting stomped by Davy Jones!" He grinned. "You amuse me boy. As soon as I use the Omnitrix to take over the universe…" "You'll make my death… as quick and painless as possible?" I said, still struggling underneath the weight of his big foot. In every superhero thing I've seen, all the villains say that. Why would this one be any different? "No… I'm feeling merciful, so I'll make you my jester." "Ben! Can't this stupid watch charge up any faster?" Gwen asked him back in the Rustbucket. "I'm trying to! It's still red!" Ben said, messing with the dial of the watch. "We gotta stall him somehow." "Okay suit… remember last time I was about to die?" I said to myself while I was still struggling under Vilgax's foot. "Time to help me again!" Nothing? So I guess Zatana's addition only gave me new sight then. Then how'd I beat Bane? "I don't know why I'm wasting my time with you anyway." He lifted his foot up and kicked me right into a building off to the side. "My real prize is the Omnitrix." He started walking towards the RV and Ben's grandpa drove backwards at the same speed. "Ben!" Gwen said to him. "I'm trying!" He replied.

"Ben, the watch sucks." Mason said as he jumped through the hole in the windshield and onto the street between Vilgax and the RV. "Hey you!" I regained consciousness and saw Mason standing there, but that didn't stop Vilgax. "As an officer of the Columbus police department, I'm gonna have to place you under arrest for endangerment, destruction of property, and…" He hesitated while he started backing up. "And what, officer?" He started to back up as Vilgax got closer. 'Oh real nice Mason…' He unholstered his gun and started firing at Squid-face, but nothing happened. "Tell you what, if you move out of my way, I won't hurt you." I got myself out of the wall and rushed towards them in an effort to do some damage to Vilgax. I jumped up and tried a flying roundhouse kick, but all that did was make him stumble forward. "Thanks Scorpio!" Mason said sarcastically. "Crap!" I tried spraying some webbing on his feet, to try and stick his feet to the ground, but even that failed. "Mason move!" Ben said. He did the same thing that Mason did, and he eventually moved. Ben jumped from the hood and slammed his hand down on the faceplate, and the same green flash I saw in the bathroom 20 minutes ago enveloped him, transforming him into the same red monster I saw in the bathroom 20 minutes ago. 'No wonder he's called Fourarms.' "Yes! I love you Omnitrix!" Ben called out as he rushed towards Vilgax, "No!" He called out before being wailed on. Gwen ran over to me. "Jake! Ben's not gonna have all the time he needs to beat back Vilgax, so when he times out, you'll have to take over." She said to me. I was all but hypnotized by the fight between Ben and Vilgax. But I WAS trying to come up with a plan. Unfortunately, they were all being trounced either because I wasn't strong enough, Mason and Gwen don't have powers, or, if Gwen's right about Ben, he won't be able to fight for very much longer. "How much longer does he have then?" I asked her. "A few minutes left." "Then I might have one idea left." I pried my motorcycle out of the RV's Rustbucket and drove off with Mason asking me where I was going. "He says he has an idea!" Gwen said.

"This is Scorpio to Watchtower. I need a round-trip teleport between my location and my dad's apartment." 'Please please please please please…' "J'onn here. You are cleared for teleportation." 'Great!' My motorcycle and I were teleported to the Watchtower, then I was teleported to my apartment, where I found the gun I used to trap Joan in that other dimension Reed Richards told me about. I was then teleported back to Columbus, Ohio, that's the place the Strikers' mansion is located. I got there soon after Ben went back to normal and Vilgax was about to finish him off. I drove my motorcycle as fast as I could and intercepted the blow at the very last second, grabbing on his arm before the blow could land. "You've kept me from my prize for the last time, boy. Now, I won't spare you. Once I take over the universe, I won't make your death painless." He tried to punch me, but I jumped above him and jumped off his shoulders. "I don't think so Vilgy," I took the gun out of my bag and tossed it to Ben. "Catch!" He caught it and, before I got a chance to tell him how to work it, he fired it behind Vilgax. Just like before, there was a vacuum. Unfortunately, Vilgax was immune to it. Thankfully, so was I. "So… you thought you could send me away with a simple vacuum? I'm too strong for such a thing." I shot a couple strands from each of my wrists to either side and pulled back. He looked at what I was trying to do. "And pulling the wall down on me won't do anything either." I wrapped the webs around my hands to get a better grip on them and I pulled back even more to the point where I couldn't pull back anymore; Vilgax looked back to me, his uh… eyes… grew wide. "Figure out what I'm planning on doing… Vilgy?" I said, straining to keep the grip my feet have on the floor. "What are you planning?" Ben said. Vilgax backed up a bit. As soon as I pulled back enough to where my head was nearly touching the ground, "This!" I released my grip on the ground, launching myself feet-first into Squidly and we both fell through the portal.

I overshot it because we both went through the portal and, on the other side, he was holding on to my feet in an attempt to pull me through. "Let go Vilgy!" I yelled to him while kicking his hand with my other foot. "Never! You let my prize get away! If I can't have it, I'll take you with me!" He was seriously starting to put the squeeze on my foot. "Let go!" I yelled again. "No!" Then all of a sudden, we were being pulled back out by Fourarms. "BEN!" He pulled us both in and grabbed my hand. As he pulled out of the weird dimension and got to Vilgax, he said, "No hitchhikers!" and punched him in the face. As he called out, I said, "See ya never, Vilgy!" and we both went back through the portal as it closed. "Thank you Ben. Though I might've been able to get myself out of there if Vilgy wasn't trying to hitch a ride." "Don't make me throw you back through Jake." He replied, but then the portal closed. "Too late. You're stuck with me now." I hopped down to the ground, but I must've landed wrong because my foot hurt so much worse than any fights I've ever been in in my whole life, even ones I've been in before my accident. Fourarms picked me up again and I used the x-ray function on the mask to look at it. "Yeah… it's broken…" But that wasn't as bad as looking at Fourarms with x-ray. "Well… um… Mason? I think you should take me to a doctor now."

So, a while later, Mason was so impressed by Ben's handiwork, and after Ben explained the Omnitrix to us, how it could turn him into 10 aliens, he offered Ben a job, but not Gwen or his grandpa. "Sorry, but like I said earlier, me, my cousin, and my grandpa are a team. Maybe some other time." Ben said. "Not only that, but we have to finish our summer vacation." Gwen added. "You… spend your summer vacation fighting aliens?" Mason asked as we looked at each other. "Best vacation ever!" We both said at once. "One more thing before you guys head off…" I was curious about something. "That gun I tossed to Ben, I didn't even tell him how to use it, yet he handled it like a professional." "It's a null void projector." Ben and Gwen's grandpa said. "But… a superhero from another dimension let me have it." I said. "How would you guys know about it?" "Because I'm a member of an intergalactic police force known as the Plumbers." Gramps said. "My uncle's a part of the Green Lanterns and he, or my dad, have ever heard of plumbers? Wait… you guys don't fix toilets?" I said, extremely confused. "Don't ask." Ben and Gwen said at the same time… for the billionth time. "You guys gotta stop that." I said. "But you guys can consider yourselves honorary Strikers." Mason added before they drove off. "Another intergalactic police force… null void… I swear Mason, if you tried telling me about this 5 years ago, I would not have believed you. Aliens… maybe."

[Back in the Null Void]

Vilgax was sulking on a rock in the Null Void. "Ben Tennyson… I'm still coming after you. But Scorpio… I will kill you." Kevin 11 and Joan flew over to him. "But Jake is all mine." Joan said. "Who's Jake? And who are you?" Vilgax asked in response. "Jake is the name of the kid under the mask. You guys can have this Ben Tennyson kid all yourselves, but I get Jake." Vilgax grinned. "Looks like we have ourselves a deal."


	37. A Bad Case of Mistaken Identity

Scorpion Warrior

Chapter 37

The day after I beat the snot, or whatever was in that weirdo squidheaded alien dude's dead, out of said squidheaded alien dude, I tried putting pressure on the foot he put the squeeze on. "Ow! Crap…!" Yup. Still hurt. "Next time you try to pull a stunt like that, don't let him grab your foot like that." Later that day, I went to a doctor to get an estimate. After getting an x-ray for my foot, the doctor came in and showed me exactly what my mask showed me. "Well, that sure is a nasty sprain. What were doing?" Doctor Canton looked at me with a bit of a weird look on my face. "Parkour." Wow, for once in my life, that actually paid off. I didn't have to lie… about my extracurricular activities… "Really? Cause it looks like something big grabbed your foot." He said to me. 'What?' "What?" I said, confused. He pulled up my pant leg and showed me a slight discoloration on my shin and around my ankle. 'Oh crap…' "I uh… was doing a parkour stunt and smacked my leg on a fire hydrant. Hurt like a…" I hesitated because he seemed like a family guy and didn't want to cuss in front of him. "Female dog." That was all I could spit out after a bit of a cough; he chuckled a little. "So explain the discoloration." 'Ohcrapohcrapohcrap…' "The rest of my group tried to tie a rope around my shin. Must've cut off the blood." Glad Vilgax didn't leave a handprint. Is that what Ben had to deal with? He could turn into that red alien dude, he's lucky.

"According to your report, the last doctor you went to didn't give you a diagnosis?" He asked me. I nodded. "Yeah. So I came here for a second opinion." 'Canton…?' "Well, sprains normally take at least a month, but with… with your parkour…? You seem fit enough to heal in at least three weeks, maybe two." He said to me. "Thanks Dr. C." And that reminded me. "Hey, you wouldn't happen to have any kids, would you?" I asked him. Maybe he's related to my high school teacher. "I have two. And uh… they aren't exactly "kids" if you know what I'm saying." "Is one of them Peter Canton?" I asked again. "Oh you know my boy Pete? He's one of my sons. He's a teacher over in New York. He always talked about one of students… brightest of his class… but got lazier towards the end of the year." I looked embarrassed. "That was me." I said sheepishly. "My diagnosis: You should've stayed off the parkour and stuck with your studies. Your foot should heal in about two to three weeks." I thanked Dr. Canton and left the building on crutches. Mason was there and picked me up to take me back to the Strikers base.

Back at the base, my dad called me. "Hey Jake, just letting you know that your birthday's coming up in a couple of weeks." "Yes Dad, I am aware that my birthday is July 24th. The anniversary of my accident is in a few days too." I can't believe it. Five years. It's been almost five years since the accident that gave me my powers. And it's also my 23rd birthday. I'm a little excited. Five years since I became a superhero, too bad my dad doesn't get a joy like that. "That's not only the reason I called. There's been quite a bit of robberies lately." "Wow. Your guys can't handle some simple robberies?" I said sarcastically. "But that's just it. None of the cops could make it and none of the security cameras can pick up who's doing it." That got me a little interested. "What do you think's going on?" That got my mind off the pain in my foot. "That's just it. Even with my own… you-know-what…" He must not be alone right now. Yep, that's the thing about having powers: You gotta keep it a secret. "The cameras just can't pick it up, no matter how much I slow down the feeds." "Alright, I'll figure something out. Once my foot heals, I'll try something." Then I heard a flush in the background. "Dad, what did I tell you about calling me in the bathroom?" "I just got here. That was somebody else. I'll call back after."

So the anniversary came and went and my foot healed in time for my birthday, though it was still a little sore.

A few days after I came back to Columbus from Metropolis after my birthday, I got bored so I decided to go swinging through the city. While I was downtown, about the same time where that dude with the amp for a stomach almost made me go deaf, my spider sense went off, I hear a gunshot, and the web snaps. "Whoa!" I shoot another web as the cycle repeats. I couldn't get swinging enough to slow myself down and slammed into the ground hard. "Ow…! What the f…" My thought was interrupted by a bunch of cops surrounding me. "Scorpio, you are under arrest. If you come quietly with us, we won't remove the mask." I surrendered peacefully, not because they'd remove my mask if I fought, but because there was Mason, looking quite disappointed in me for some weird reason.

About an hour later, I found myself on the wrong side of an interrogation room, but at least I had some music to listen to… and some painkillers. Mason walked in and motioned to the one-way mirror to cut something, as he waved his hand in front of his throat in a cut it out motion, then pointed to the same wall he walked in through. After he locked the door, he sat down on the other side of the table. "Okay Jake, we're alone. Nobody here but us." He looked at me straight in the eye while he said that. "That's not all, is it?" Was the only thing I could say to him. "You're fired." After a second, he got up and walked to the door; I shot a web over the handle before he could reach for it. Then it was his turn to say what I asked him, "That's not all, is it?" "I could most certainly say that no, that's not it." He sat back down after I said that. "You guys arrested me and I don't even know what for." "Okay, you're under arrest for three counts of robbery, one count of murder, and 1100 counts of being a pain in the ass." That took a second to sink in. "Wait, wait, wait, robbery? Murder? What are you talking about?" Why would I murder somebody? What's going on? "Oh right. Like you weren't the one who robbed three banks and murdered a security guard while trying to get away from the third bank, is that what you're trying to tell me?" He asked me in his usual smartass/asshole tone of voice. "Yes. That is exactly what I'm trying to say. Murder a security guard? I… I've never even pointed a gun at a human being before." I heard something really faint coming from outside. "Press release. One of our guys is in the hospital, thanks to you too, and our chief's doing her best to explain the situation." I sprayed webbing on Mason's feet before leaving the interrogation room in a rush.

While I was walking towards the entrance, trying my best not to yank all the guns the cops were pointing at me from their hands, the press release was getting louder. I walked outside and saw that Mason was right. There was press all around and they were taking pictures of me and asking questions about what "I" was doing. After a while, I walked back inside, completely ignoring the press, and Mason caught up to me. "Listen Scorpio…" "No you listen Mason!" I said, interrupting him. "Don't you see what this could do?" While all the cops had their guns pointed towards us, I was looking towards the press. "You go out there and tell them this is all one big misunderstanding Mason." I said right to his face. "Why should I?" Mason blatantly replied. "I have no time to argue right now. This could shatter my reputation." "Well maybe you'll deserve it then." I was just about to sock him right in the face, before I found myself in the teleporter hub of the Watchtower.

Almost the entire team was there, looking right at me. The Justice League Founding Seven: Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Hawkgirl, Hal, Barry, and J'onn were all there, including Captain Marvel, Green Arrow, Red Arrow, Artemis, Robin, Wally, Megan, Conner, and Aqualad. And Karen… Everybody but Megan and Wally were either pissed at me or disappointed at me. Megan looked sad, and Wally wasn't even looking in my direction; my dad and Hal were the most disappointed. "Uh… hi?" was the only thing I said at that point. Karen just flew away. It started to get a little awkwardly silent. "What's going on?" I asked again. Then it hit me. "Oh… crap… please tell me none of you saw the news." "And he finally gets it." Wally said. "Jake… please say none of it is true…" Megan said. I couldn't believe it… what once was the savior of the country, now I felt like its pariah. "None of you seriously believe that crap, do you?" I asked all of them. "Why else are you here?" Conner said. "Are you guys kidding me?" I asked all of them. Then I had a thought. "J'onn, read my mind." "I had already attempted that, Jacob." He said. "Your thoughts are too scrambled for me to piece together." Great… one of the only chances I had to prove my innocence, and I can't even think straight due to what happened. "Dad, please." I said. "Innocent until proven guilty?" One of the monitors came down showing an eyewitness testimony, he was a kid who looked way too familiar to be a coincidence. His face looked like he was crying hard. "I used to look up to Scorpio." He said through sniffles and sobs. "When he came into the bank my mom and were at, I ran up to him and I wanted to get his autograph." 'Autograph…?' "Then he took a gun and shot the roof of the bank. He told to get our butts to the ground and we did." I was staring at the monitor, trying to remember where I saw that kid. 'That can't be coincidence.' "While the tellers were filling up a bag full of money, a big guy with a beard dressed in blue…" He stopped for a moment, while off-screen, somebody told him who he was. "A security guard took his gun out and Scorpio turned and shot him in the head." The boy pointed to his face the spot where "I" shot the security guard.

"Is that enough proof for you? That was done down in Metropolis." My dad said. 'A gun…? But I've never pointed a gun at anybody in my life…' I finally remembered where I saw that kid. He was the same kid who asked me for my autograph after everybody in Metropolis knew my identity. All he wanted was my autograph… and "I" completely… "Oh my god…" "You're fired." Batman said. Coming from him, I guess I understand. "I'm going after him." I said. The teleporters activated and I saw Robin's face at the last second turn from anger to surprise before I was sent right back to Columbus. I hid in the shadows and used the camouflage function Young Justice had installed in our suits to further hide me from any helicopters that might be sweeping.

"You learned quite well from Batman." Robin's voice coming from behind me came as a shock to me. "Robin?" "I'm not sure if I believe you or not, but you're right. "Innocent until proven guilty" and I want to help you prove your innocence." "Thanks a lot, Dick." I said with a big grin. "And you'll need my help." That made me roll my eyes. "Now since Scorpio's become Public Enemy Number 1…" Robin started to say. "We'll need to ditch our costumes." I finished. "Why us?" "Well if people see you, they'll swarm you for autographs. I mean, you're Batman's sidekick."

After a few seconds of hesitation, "Somebody might see us changing though." Robin pointed across the street. We had to duck inside the building and stealthily got inside a restroom and finally changed out of our costumes. "Detectives Dick Grayson and Jake Smith," Dick started to say. "The Not-As-Awesome-As-The-Dynamic-Duo-But-Still-Awesome Duo." I said. "That was lame." Robin began as he pulled out that little mini-PC on his arm and started typing something into the display. "There's no pattern to those robberies. Whoever it is wanted to damage your reputation as much as possible." We made our way out of the bathroom and into an elevator. "Glad I'm not John Stewart. Do any of those banks have security cameras?" I asked him. "Stupid question. Of course they do. Another stupid question is why I never thought of that." We got inside an elevator and tried watching the banks' security cameras. "Bank 1: All shot out. Bank 2: All shot out. Bank 3…" No dice. "Well that's just great." I said angrily. "Nothing to prove my innocence." Dick looked at me. "I wouldn't be so sure about that." I looked at him with a sense of renewed hope in my eyes. He positioned the display to where I can look at it. "There's nothing to see in the video; he's too good. But look at the timestamp." He reversed the feed to almost 15 seconds before "I" robbed bank #1. "These were in the span of two days." "Unfortunately, I was here the last few days." He grinned almost as wide as the Cheshire Cat. I've always been scared of that grin. "But which two days." I looked closer still at the timestamp. "Remember when everybody celebrated your birthday with you back at home? They started around that time. " That question started after the elevator picked up another passenger, so he had to word it so it didn't give our identities away. "And that proves it." The elevator got to the bottom floor and we all got out. All I could do without getting too excited was throw my fists up to my chest.

We got outside in time to see a bunch of police cars speed by blaring their sirens. "Great, now there's a manhunt for Scorpio." I said, pissed off at the guy impersonating me. "No wait. I'm listening to a police scanner and they say there's something else going on. Guess what it is: Bank robbery." I looked at him, "Is there an address? A name?" "Duh." He punched something into the display and a security feed appeared. "And I present to you a live feed of Scorpio robbing a bank. That's it buddy. Once we show up, you're innocent. I know how to get there, let's go."

My motorcycle was still at the Strikers base. As soon as we got there, the coast was clear, so Dick and I changed into our costumes and got going towards the bank. Once we got there, we hid around the corner from the bank to see what was going to happen. "Scorpio, we've given you a chance." One of the cops said. "Now come out with your mask off and your hands behind your back." I came around the corner. "Alright, but how else would I be able to prove my innocence?" All the cops turned around and pointed their guns at me, but then faltered for a while. Some were looking at each other, really confused. I rolled up alongside Mason. "I told you I was innocent…" I walked over to one of the other cops and took his megaphone. "Well "Scorpio", time to give up buddy-boy. You're talking to the real, genuine Scorpio." I turned off the megaphone and looked towards one of the cops. "Get every news station out here. Every news helicopter you can think of." There were already some helicopters flying around. I felt a familiar buzz in my head and told everybody to duck right when I felt an extremely sharp pain in my shoulder. He shot me. The bastard shot me. I laughed a little bit and turned the megaphone towards the bank again. "You'll have to do better than a bullet to the shoulder, Scorpio. I've handled much worse." All the cops had their guns trained on the bank. But the imposter came out with a hostage. The helicopter that was hovering over us dropped a rope ladder. "What's going on?" "You want to shoot me, fine! But the bullets will have to go through her!" Mason motioned for the cops to lower their guns, which they did.

As soon as he got to the ladder, he pushed his hostage away and left with the helicopter. "Dammit! He got away." "Oh no he didn't!" I ran towards the imposter Scorpio, but the helicopter pilot got him out of my reach. Then I tried a wall jump, but the helicopter was too fast. THEN I tried snagging the imposter with a web, he dodged it. "Well… that's extremely embarrassing." Mason said. I finally got the bright idea to snag the helicopter itself with a web, and that did it. I snagged it. "Really now?" Robin said. The helicopter pilot then decided to drag me along for the ride. "Yeah. Really." Mason said with a straight face.

While I was getting dragged along, the imposter had the bright idea to shoot the web, but all the bullets kept missing. Then I yanked the gun out of his hand with another web. "Ha! What now?" I mockingly asked him. "This!" He said as he pointed his wrist at me and shot one of his own webs at me, which I was able to dodge. "Wait, what the hell?" "I wasn't lying when I claimed to be Scorpio, I AM Scorpio. I was there when you put my father, Ultraman, in jail." He yelled to me. "I couldn't do anything about it at the time because I didn't want to give away what I could do. When I came back, everybody was gone. The police had already taken away Ultraman, and you and Lex Luthor were nowhere to be found." He explained. "So why trash my reputation?" I asked him. "I wanted revenge! I figured Why kill him when I could ruin him? It wasn't until recently when Owlman discovered the multiverse. The Justice League of your universe came here trying to stop Owlman from succeeding in his plans to go to Earth-Prime and destroy it, destroying all of existence. Then, I had my chance. Once your Justice League opened the portal to your Earth, I snuck in from behind and somehow ended up here in Ohio. My original powers were replaced with these spider abilities when I ended up in this weird alternate universe not like mine at all, so when I ended up here in Ohio, I decided to give up searching for Scorpion Warrior." For some weird reason, his voice sounded really familiar, but I didn't know why. "I made a killing working in the factory, until Jagger Chen commissioned us to work on these animatronics, completely wrecking my salary." That's why I recognized him. "You're Louis. Louis Anthony?" He removed his mask. "Not Louis Anthony. That was all part of the disguise. You, my friend, can call me…"

"Jake Smith?" I repeated. "That's right. And if I'm Jake Smith under this mask, then I can probably take a wild guess and say you are too." "Well so what if I am?" I asked. "You still wrecked Scorpio's reputation." "Mission accomplished! Oh, and since I did that, killing you will be all the sweeter!" As soon as he said that, I felt that oh-so-familiar buzz in my head. "And once you're out of the picture, I can take my sweet time terrorizing the city, the country, the Justice League… maybe I can even rule the world!" I looked around and saw a big minigun just raring to shoot me. "OH CRAP!" was the only thing out of my mouth before I let go of the strand of web I was holding on to and dropped from the helicopter right when the minigun started firing. All the bullets that were meant for me instead hit the other Jake Smith, practically showering anybody unlucky enough to be underneath in blood. The imposter Scorpio was dead.

"I am so sorry for thinking you were the one robbing all those banks, Jake." Later that day, despite all that happened, I still insisted on a proper funeral for the other Jake. At the cemetery, Mason was talking to me and that's when he apologized. "Think nothing of it, Mason." He looked at me. "How can you forgive me so easily?" I chuckled a little. "I'm a nice guy. Always have been. Hell, even if my sister was in your position, I'd still forgive her for trying to snap me in half. Besides, Robin told me that the rest of my Metropolis team felt bad. Even if he wouldn't admit it, he even saw that Batman seemed a little embarrassed about firing me." That got him to chuckle a little. "And hey, if you still want to be a Striker," He slapped a hand on my shoulder. "Your position's still open." "Thanks Mason," I said after I rolled my eyes. "But I think it's about time Metropolis get Scorpio back." "Oh, hey Jake," I was about to ask to warp out of there, but he caught me first. "If you ever stop by, there's a kid a few towns over who could probably use some help. Goes by the name of Red Angel." Mason held his hand out. "I'll be sure to stop by." I said, while grasping it in a shake.

After warping back up to the Watchtower, Batman revoked his pink slip and I'm back in the Justice League again. Karen, though, felt even worse about earlier, but I let her know that there were no hard feelings.

I warped down to Mt. Justice where I was met with a tackling hug from Megan. "I knew you were innocent!" She said excitedly. "So… I take it you guys saw the news?" I asked the rest of the team. "We did. And Wally, you owe me 20 bucks." Artemis said while giving him a noogie. "I just can't believe anybody would want to frame you like that." Megan said to me. "Perks of the superhero business, Miss M. Not only do you get famous, but people wanna kill you."

[The next day, after straightening things out with my dad, he called me and told me about one of his coworker's nephew's birthdays. I bet you'll never guess who it was: It was the little boy who wanted Scorpio's autograph.]

I swung on over to the location my dad told me the boy was having his birthday at and walked in. You couldn't believe the look on his face when he met me. It was the exact same face I had when I first met Superman; though it was only after a look of fright washed over his face and he hid behind a woman's leg. She kneeled down and put a hand on the boy's shoulder. "It's okay, Ben, the thing with Scorpio is all taken care of. He's the real deal." 'This is the kid who ran up to me that day…' I grinned as he looked at me. "I owe somebody an autograph."


	38. Bodyguard Duty

Scorpion Warrior

Chapter 38

"So… you three junior-grade "heroes" thought you could stop us?"

[9 hours earlier]

"Her name is Selena Gonzalez." I was briefing the Team at Café Sugar about what was going on. "My dad got a call from her this morning telling him that she had some attempts on her life." "Why would anybody put a hit out on a total hottie like her?" Wally asks me. After an awkward cough, I blew that question off and continued, "Uh… anyway… I'm… not exactly sure why…" "I know why." Robin interrupted. "Jake's dad told Batman, who then told me." "Since when were they so buddy-buddy?" Wally asked Robin. "Well, my dad has a connection to the Justice League through me." I still haven't told anybody about my dad yet. "Batman asked him to be liaison. The reason he isn't helping is because there's nobody there who can handle a high-profile case like that." "Okay… two things, One: How can nobody there take the case? Two: Why didn't he tell you?" Wally asked me. To answer the first question, I turned the picture of Selena over and there was a note on the back. "It's not anything a regular cop could handle." "The attempts were quite a bit…" Robin wasn't sure about what words to say. "Let's just say I've heard of worse. As for my phone… it ran out of power over the night." I didn't want to tell them that I broke it attempting a parkour stunt I haven't tried since I became Scorpion Warrior.

"Can we continue?" Aqualad asked. "Yeah. After looking through some of Batman's files, I found that there have been a few targets. At first, they seemed unrelated, but I cross-referenced that with a lot of other data and I found a pattern." "You realize he's gonna kill you when he finds out you hacked into Batman's files, right?" I said to Robin. "Anyway, I think she might be next. The other hits were arranged to be accidental, such as messed up muggings." "So Batman wants me to look into this, and you guys are gonna help." I sat down and took a sip of my hot chocolate. "And what makes you think we're gonna go along with you?" Wally said with a cocky grin. "Oh, is there anybody else here who's Justice League?" I matched Wally's grin with one of my own. "You still aren't mad about last week, right?" "Wally, putting three whole jalapeños on somebody's hamburger is not funny." Aqualad said while Wally took a sip of his drink. "3… 2… 1." And Wally shot up out of his seat yelling about his mouth burning. "But the juice of five freshly squeezed jalapeños in somebody's coffee is." He was running all over the place looking for something to drink, then rushed over to a fountain in the park next door. I wish you could've seen the look on my face. Robin and I were laughing as much as we were back in the batcave when I finally got that lead on who killed my mom. I fell on the floor laughing it was so funny. But the look on Wally's face when he walked over was amazing.

After all that passed, we had to get back to work. "What are we going to do about Conner and Megan?" Kaldur asked. "Last I heard, Megan went to visit her family on Mars with J'onn and Conner… I don't know what he's doing." I replied. "Anyway, how do we know all of these accidents and muggings are hits? How are they related?" Aqualad asked again. "Cadmus?" I suggested. "At first, I suspected it was Cadmus, but none of the evidence pointed to them. But it seems like these "accidents" were executed by the League of Shadows." Aqualad and I exchanged confused looks after Robin explained all that. "Who?" I asked curiously. "You've never heard of the League of Shadows?" Wally said in exasperation. "How long have you been a hero for?" I held up five fingers then, while making sure nobody was looking, sprayed some web into his hair.

"Can we concentrate?" Robin seemed a bit annoyed. "The League of Shadows is a deadly organization with their dirty hands in a lot of stuff all over the world. Killing isn't above them. Since they're just accidents, nobody can prove anything." "So, just to make sure I heard right, we're glorified bodyguards to stop an attempt on a person's life?" Aqualad asked with a confused look.

"So… she's still working, isn't she?" I was laying down on the roof of the building across the street from the building Selena Gonzalez was working, extremely bored. Robin was still spying on her, Kaldur was standing there, and Wally was eating a bag of chips. "Stop chewing so loudly Wally." Oh yeah, he was eating way loudly. "I wish he could feed with a filter system like a humpback whale." Aqualad said. I looked at him with a strange look on my face. "I'll never understand your species Kaldur…" "Very funny…" Wally added. "Guys, keep it down." Robin scowled at us. "Well sorry, I'm just bored." Wally cried out. "How long have we been sitting here?" "Few hours, give or take." I replied. "See? That's hard for me to do. And I need to eat." He let out a loud groan as he fell backwards. "She's been there all day… all of the employees went home already. She's by herself. If they were gonna go after her, wouldn't they have done it by now?" That gave me an idea. I cycled through all the vision settings my mask gave: Telescopic, infrared, x-ray, and none of them found anything. "There! There's movement below the window." Aqualad pointed out. There was somebody crawling up the side of the building. "Is that another Spider-Man?" I asked. "I don't know." Robin said. Before anything else was done, Wally sped off the building and Robin jumped off the building giggling like he did when we first fought Blockbuster. I decided to follow suit, but Aqualad stayed back.

I landed on the wall in front of this new wall crawler and stood up just like I was standing on the ground. "Hey, this city's only big enough for one Spider-Man, and I just so happen to fill that spot." He just blew off my comment and sprayed some webbing at Wally while he was running towards us. "Hey Ninja Dude!" The webbing wrapped around his ankles and tripped him up. Literally. "Name's Black Spider… Fast Dude." He said. 'Well he talks at least.' "Hey, don't ignore me in the middle of witty banter!" Wally called out for someone to help, so I had to crawl over there, then I snagged him with a web as he fell, and Robin rammed into the building beside the Black Spider… lame name for a lame costume. Robin was able to dodge Black Spider's web, but it hit my legs above them, causing me to lose my grip on the wall, which in turn made us fall and land on Robin. We both threw lines towards parts of the wall, he the grapple gun he and Batman use to swing around, and me a web. "Great… that worked out swell." Wally moped. "Yeah, us taking out that other Spider-Man turned into quite a sticky situation." I added. "Looks like Hook will have to finish the job then." We turned to see someone who looked like a human Solomon Grundy with a giant metal hook for a hand holding an unconscious Aqualad.

My little spider sense buzzed right before he launched the hook, and Aqualad, at us. Robin and Wally dove out of the way, but I stayed and tried grabbing him. That failed. It slammed us into the building, knocking me out like Aqualad was. I woke up again in time to see Wally get KO'd by the knock-off Spider-Man. I got up weakly and got into a fighting stance, ready to try and take down the Black Spider and Captain Hook. But I was too weak from being smacked into a wall and Hook smacked me in the face with his hook. I was knocked out again.

I woke up again dangling upside down tied to Robin, Aqualad, and Wally. "So guys, how's it hanging?" "So… you three junior-grade "heroes" thought you could stop us?" The Black Spider asked us mockingly. "What were you guys thinking trying to challenge a coupla pros like us?" Hook said. "Well, we thought about trying to protect this young lady from a coupla top-tier League of Shadows hitmen." I wonder if me mocking a person who can easily gut me like a flounder is a good idea. "I wouldn't go throwing around names of deadly groups like that if I were you kid." The Black Spider was holding his arm around Selena. 'One wrong move and she might get hurt. We can't go all crazy on them…' "Why are you going after her?" Robin asked him. "You realize we don't have to answer your question, right? Seeing as how… y'know, we have the upper hand. How did you know we'd be here?" The Spider said. 'Why don't the bad guys ever make it easy…?' Hook held his hook up to us and demanded we answer. "Wait, how does that work? You don't get to answer but we have to? How come we don't get the same pleasure?" Hook grinned. It's not like the Spider could behind his mask. "You're a funny one. But you screwed up. And got caught by us. How badly would the great Batman's sidekick's reputation's reputation be if that news got out?" "Well, we did stop you from hurting her, right?" Hook started laughing a little and turned to Black Spider. "Can you believe these guys Spider? They're hilarious!" He turned back towards us in time to get Robin's foot to the face.

"That was awesome Robin!" I called out while I slid between Selena and the Spider's legs. But he was a step ahead of me. He swung his free hand around behind me once I got up and backhanded me in the face, then stuck me to the floor with his web. "Oh gross! What is this stuff anyway?" While I was struggling with Black Spider's web, Hook threw his hook through the wall and KF and Robin split up from Aqualad. Again. Wally used his speed to gain the upper hand on Hook but Spider trapped him like he did me. Then Robin tried to jump Hook, but Spider saw it coming and warned him. "Close but no Moby Dick, Ishmael." "Maybe not, but don't forget about Spider!" Aaaand… the Black Spider traps Robin and Wally in that weird web stuff up on the wall. Hook was about to repaint the wall, and I couldn't free myself in time, but Aqualad was there instead and made a shield with the water from the tank behind Hook. "Go Aqualad!" I called out as he freed us all. I immediately got up and stared down Spider. "Crap… can't hurt Selena…" All of a sudden, there was a bunch of smoke bombs and I heard Wally save her. "Perfect!" I cycled through the visions my mask gave me until I got to one that let me see through this smoke. Then I dashed towards the Spider, preparing to hit him with a knee uppercut, but he must've seen me coming and threw himself backwards. I didn't get a chance to react before he threw himself up and kicked me right in the back.

Aqualad was making sure Hook couldn't use the hook. "Get the girl out of here!" Kaldur told Wally. "I can't. Last time, they whooped us bad. We gotta stick together." I got up and ran between Hook's oncoming hook and Wally and Kaldur before the hook hit them, and grabbed it, but it tore me up quite a bit. Then I passed out from the shock of the hit. Robin smacked Black Spider with a flying kick and Aqualad tried grabbing Hook's chain to pull him back, but he saw it coming and kicked Aqualad square in the face with both lunking feet. Wally then smashed him into another wall, then sped over to Selena and grabbed her before Spider sprayed his web. Hook was looming over her and Wally, but Robin caught him with some of his own personalized Batarangs. "We aren't getting anywhere." Robin said, annoyed. "We need a chance to get away." Aqualad replied. Unfortunately, Black Spider stuck the only exit we had and Hook tried shooting his hook with Spider snagging it and mutilating the ceiling with it. Aqualad smashed the floor with some water-maces and Wally and Robin grabbed Selena and I and we all ended up on the lower floor.

"We need to get out of here, like now! Robin called out. "Scorpio's hurt bad!" "If we go outside, we will not be able to survive long. We need to go stealth if we have a chance of turning the tide and ending this." Kaldur replied. Hook's hook went flying through the ceiling and we all split up, with Robin hiding me in the corner as I was waking up. "What happened…?" I clutched my chest and found blood on my hand. "Tell you later." Robin replied while I sprayed my own smaller than Black Spider's web over the wound to stop the bleeding then got up. "Wait, but you're hurt." "Don't worry about me. Worry about the Black Spider and what I'm gonna do to him for cramping my style." Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum came through the hole after us. "The minute we get outside, they'll be on us faster than Wally on three triple cheeseburgers. What do we do?" "We sit here until Aqualad puts his plan into effect." Robin said while making sure they don't see us.

We snuck over behind Hook and Black Spider and got to Aqualad. "So… what do we do?" I asked him, a little pained from Hook's hook. "You stay and rest. We'll do the fighting." He was talking about the wound I got after I saved the rest of them from the hook. "I can take Hook, but the Spider is too quick and can subdue multiple targets with his webbing." "Aw man…! He's seriously cramping my style… I'm the only Spider-Man in this town…" "You can arrest him later." Robin scolded me. "Robin, can you and Kid Flash take him?" "Yeah. I just need five seconds."

Aqualad walked out and made himself a target for Hook and Black Spider. "Hey, look at the human glow stick." Hook said mockingly. "What are you gonna do? There's no water anywhere on this floor." I caught a hint of a cocky tone in Spider's voice. "True, but we are standing right over a bathroom." "Oh… this is gonna be funny." Once Aqualad took Hook out with the water, Wally came out and threw some energy shots at Spider. Not actual energy-based shots, more like shots of energy drinks. But they were blasted away by Spider's web.

"Now what…?" I groaned quietly behind the wall that Robin, Aqualad, and I were hiding behind as I looked around the corner in time to see an explosion around Black Spider and all his web exploded on him. I walked out and grinned right into his mask. "Well, not so fun now, is it?" I looked around and noticed we were the only people in the room. "Uh… guys? Where'd Selena go?"

The next day, I was swinging around after looking for Selena all night and made my way to the mountain in time to hear the end of a news broadcast Robin was showing. "How did I miss it?" Robin asked. "Back in the building, Black Spider said "The minute you get outside, we'll know where you are." Do not be ashamed Robin, I missed it too." Aqualad said, trying to make Robin feel better. "Wait, what's going on?" I asked. "The League of Shadows… they had others outside the building… they were there and they completely avoided our detection!" Robin said to me. It took me a second to realize what happened. "It's not the end… is it? I was out all night looking for her… Maybe the other Leaguers that were there just captured her…" My enthusiasm was short-lived as Wally solemnly shook his head, "The League of Shadows don't take prisoners dude…" And that's when it hit me.


	39. Daughter of Scorpio

Scorpion Warrior

Chapter 39

It's 25 years into the future. Jake Smith, the original Scorpion Warrior, has been dead since that time, leaving his 25 year old daughter, Taylor Smith, with her mother. Taylor was watching some old home movies of herself at certain events of her childhood. Her mother kept the identity of her father being a superhero from her since long after his death. All her life, she's felt different from all her childhood friends, and she's known it, but she's never known why. Her mother told her that Jake died in a car accident. She watched the news story of the death of Scorpio. Scorpio was fighting a dimension jumper. Even with the help of his spider sense, the dimension jumper still had the upper hand. The dimension jumper eventually used his power and warped a car between dimension holes until it gained plenty of momentum. Then, since Jake was already worn out as it was, he couldn't dive out of the way and was crushed between the car and a wall. He had just enough energy to push the car out of the way in one last ditch effort to win. "NO! How is this possible?" The jumper called out. "That car was going at least 200 miles per hour in a 20 mile street! There's no way anybody could've survived that!" The jumper looked scared. He opened another portal in an attempt to run away from the fight. "Who… who are you…?" Jake removed his mask and revealed his identity to the world. At that point, Taylor's mom walked into the room. "I am Jake Smith! I am Scorpio!" His breathing started to become shallow. The jumper was halfway through the portal when Jake snagged him with a web and pulled him back out. "Where do you think you're going, Mister Magician?" Jake yanked the jumper out of his portal "What are you going to do to me? Kill me?" The jumper asked as Jake's eyes started to glow red. Jake, then grinned and fired the eye beams into his eyes, killing him instantly. Then he set his sights on the technology the jumper used to warp between dimensions. Lines of blood dripped down his lip as more blood fell down his face like it was a waterfall. Then he fell down to the side. Dead.

It's 25 years into the future. Taylor Smith has just witnessed her father reveal his identity as Scorpio. "Taylor…" Taylor turned around to see her mother standing there. "Taylor… you weren't supposed to see that." Her mother said. "What do you mean? That my father didn't really die in a car accident? That he was really a superhero?" Taylor concentrated for a second and started to hover. "So, I can fly…" There was quite a bit of a disappointed look on Taylor's face. "If I told you your father was a superhero, you would've done something that might've gotten yourself hurt. Trust me, he was the same way when he found out about your grandfather." Taylor's mother hung her head after she realized what she said. "Grandpa's a superhero too?" "No, he just has powers… he's a Kryptonian just like Superman." "I knew I was special… but I didn't think it would be like this…" Then Taylor flew out of the house.

Some time later, Taylor had just left the cemetery and her super hearing kicked in. She heard a bunch of sirens that sounded like those of a fire engine. Coincidentally, a few fire engines just so happened to drive by. "Well, my dad revealed his identity. No point in keeping mine." Taylor mumbled to herself as she lifted off the ground. She followed the fire engines and came upon an apartment building that was on fire. "Oh… that's not good." She darted into one of the apartments and flew out with a resident, and was just about to rinse and repeat, but was tackled to the ground by an all-too-familiar-for-comfort face: Jake Smith. "**DADDY?**" Taylor shouted in shock once she caught her second wind. "What's going on?" Jake wound a fist back and sent a jab straight into Taylor's face, giving her a nosebleed. "Daddy… wh… what's going on?" She dodged another blow and flipped around, catching her father in a headlock. "That's why mom never told me about you." Jake flew them up into the air then slammed them down with her taking the brunt of the force.

Jake stood over his fallen foe, his eyes glowing red, when a few orbs dropped to his feet and exploded, releasing a bit of gas that completely blinded him. A mysterious figure cloaked in black from head to toe, with a bat on the chest that looks like it's about to flap, flew down and landed between Jake and Taylor. "Go! Get out of here!" The figure launched an uppercut to Jake's jaw, then jumped and did a flying kick, launching him 50 feet away. "I don't think I can Batman…" Taylor said, weakened after her own father's assault on her face. Batman was slammed into the ground close by Taylor. "Warhawk, gonna need your help…" … "Well finish what you're doing. She needs your help." He used his jet boots to push himself out of the way of Jake's path. "Well… get off your date." He front flipped over Jake as he attempted to punch Batman. He then kicked Jake with help from his jet boots. "Look, I'll make it up to you later. I have to deal with Jake right now!" … "She's too weak." … "Yes! He's back again! Now get over here!" Jake flew over to a fire hydrant and kicked it off, redirecting the geyser right into Batman and pushing him righting into another building. "Daddy…" Was the last word out of Taylor's mouth before she passed out.

Warhawk finally arrived and picked up Taylor and flew her towards a hospital. Batman then launched a batarang towards Jake. It exploded and froze him in a hard-to-crack gel, then flew off after Warhawk and Taylor. "Batman…?" Taylor finally woke up a few minutes later. "Hey Taylor. Sorry about… about your dad and all…" Batman didn't know what to say. "He died before I was born." Taylor replied with forgiveness in her voice. "I guess that's why my mom didn't want me knowing about him." Taylor hovered out of Warhawk's arms, and they all stopped midflight. "He was brought back to life after he died by Ra's Al Ghul. He was turned into a mindless zombie though. Not common by Ra's's MO." Taylor completely ignored Batman and had a pained look on her face. "He needs to be destroyed…" "Taylor?" Batman and Warhawk said at the same time. "We can't save him, can we? So the only other option is to kill him." Batman's eyes went wide at what Taylor said, "But… but he's your father." "No… you said it yourself Terry. He's a mindless zombie."

Batman had a thought. "Hold on a second Taylor. We can save him." Taylor looked concerned. "After Jake beat down the dimension jumper 25 years ago, the original Batman came and took his warp technology. It should be stored somewhere in the batcave." Half an hour later, they made their way to the batcave. Warhawk wanted to go back to his date, but Bruce Wayne's time machine needed at least three people. When they got in, Bruce started chastising Terry for bringing Taylor there. "Relax, she's 'his' daughter." Terry explained his plan to Bruce. "You realize, if this succeeds, it'll change the course of history." Bruce said to Taylor. She nodded without a second thought and Terry and Warhawk activated the time machine. Taylor flew through the portal.

And ended up intercepting the car that originally crushed Jake, though it looked like they were both crushed. Taylor, however, was killed instantly, while Jake remained unharmed. "Now… where were we?" Jake said to the jumper. The jumper tried to escape through a portal, but Jake snagged the jumper with a web and pulled him back out. "W-w-what are you gonna do…?" The jumper asked Jake, scared for his life. Jake used his heat vision and fried the jumper's circuitry. "I'm Scorpio!" The jumper was then placed under arrest by Batman and the jumper circuitry was confiscated by him.


	40. Light in the Shadow

Scorpion Warrior

Chapter 40

I woke up today with a really strangely creepy feeling of déjà vu… "Hey Jake, wake up." [That's weird… why would he wake me up? He hasn't woken me up for five years…] "Time for school." 'School?' I pushed myself up out of bed, and immediately fell right out of bed. "Ow." "Jake? You okay?" I heard my dad call from the other room. "Yeah dad… maybe just a concussion… and a few shattered ribs… but I'm fine." [I hope.] "Okay, stop being a smartass and get ready for school." 'School again… I haven't been in school since I stopped after that semester of college.' I got up and looked around. 'My room is different… my bed's smaller…' I tried opening the door, but I couldn't open it. 'Is my door locked?' I pulled harder and finally got the door open, but I didn't rip it off the hinges like when I first had my powers. 'Weird…' [I don't know if it was the fact that I'm not even awake yet or what, but I feel somehow… different…]

I heard a familiar voice say good morning to me, but I was still asleep and I gave them a half-assed good morning as I walked to the bathroom. About ten minutes later, I got out of the shower and dried off. [Finally awake? Never took me this long to wake up…] I walked out into the living room and saw none other than Eric sitting there at the counter. "Hey buddy, you took too long in the shower, so I hope you don't mind me eating your food." My eyes went wide. Eric's been dead for what, almost four years? I slapped myself hard in the face to make sure I wasn't dreaming or anything. The only thing that did was make my cheek hurt like a mother… "Jake?" I heard my dad say before I fainted. I woke up a while later… and still saw Eric standing there. "Jake…? You okay buddy?" "Uh… yeah, I think so. I think my powers are acting up though…" Eric looked confused for a second before laughing. "Powers? Mr. S, can you believe this? He thinks his powers are acting up." I feigned a laugh along with him. 'What's going on…?' "I think you really do have a concussion Jake. You don't have any powers. We're all regular humans here." I heard a clinking come from the kitchen. "Wait, I'm normal again?" I don't know if I should be happy about this. 'What's going on? I liked being Scorpio…' "Well, not so much normal as you have a metal plate on your arm." Eric said, pointing to a spot on my arm near my elbow. I remember now. There was a scar on it from the time I messed up a parkour stunt I was doing and jacked up my arm. I completely forgot about that after I fought David Cassedy. "Come on, if we get going, we might miss the first few minutes of class."

I spent the whole bus ride in silence after I asked Eric what day it was. January 3rd, 2006. "Jake, say something." Eric snapped me out of my silence. "Oh, sorry. I'm just thinking." "What, about these mysterious powers of yours?" He said. "I'm serious Eric. I had powers. I'm a superhero. You don't remember all that? I had an accident at a science lab towards the end of the year and gained superpowers." Eric leaned forward and looked me right in the eyes. "Okay, smart guy, say you did have these powers. You don't have them now. If you really did have this accident, it won't happen until April." He darted his eyes back and forth while thinking. "Okay… if you think you did have powers, prove it. What powers did you have?" I smirked. I may have lost my powers, but my memory is apparently intact for some reason. "Flight, strength, heat vision, x-ray…" He got an interested look on his face. "Like Superman?" "Uh… more or less. I was shot with a bunch of radiation after I messed up another parkour stunt trying to impress Danielle." He burst out laughing. "Danielle? She's the hottest girl in school. How would expect to date her?" "That's my stupidity. I think that concussion after I jacked up my first parkour stunt knocked off a few brain cells." We laughed together at that.

At lunch, which was a crappy looking cheeseburger and tater tots, I noticed one of my classmates getting picked on. 'I remember him. He killed himself after high school graduation…' Eric noticed me and turned towards where I was looking. "That's Corey Jackson, dude. The baddest cat in school. Poor Alex… being his latest punching bag…" I got up and was almost about to walk over, but Eric grabbed my arm. "Dude… I hope you aren't doing what I think you're doing." I sat back down and looked at him while Corey was beating on Alex. "You want proof that I'm not insane? After graduation, Alex killed himself because Corey kept picking on him after. While I was Scorpion Warrior, I…" "Wait, Scorpion Warrior? Couldn't come up with anything better?" Eric interrupted me with a laugh. "I changed it to Scorpio later. Anyway, while I was Scorpion Warrior, I was a hero. I once saved the whole country from turning into a total wasteland." He let my arm go and I walked over to Corey and Alex. I pulled Alex out of the way and Corey acted all macho while he looked at me. "Hey, what the hell you think you're doin Smith?" "I'm stopping you from picking on Alex." He laughed to the other guys in his gang. "Can you believe this guy? Quiet little Jakey standing up for the geek?" When he turned back towards me, I socked him square in the face.

You know the phrase "This hurts me more than it hurts you"? Well… let's just say… it hurt me. A lot. Like, it felt like I broke my hand rather than Corey's nose. And speaking of Corey… he tried punching me back, but I ducked. "Hey, little Jakey's got some spunk." One of Corey's thugs caught me in a full nelson and Corey was reeling to throw a punch to my gut, but I jumped up using the thug as support and kicked Corey right in the gut. That pushed the thug back and he tripped backwards, where we both fell on the ground. While Corey was trying to catch his breath, I ripped my old jacket's sleeve in half and tied it around the thug's head to stop him from bleeding. I saw Corey then charging towards me, but I saw Danielle and I kinda forgot how good she looked. Boy that was a bad idea. Corey slugged me right in the eye.

[Somewhere else]

A body sitting on an operating table started to seize up for a minute. "Do something!" A familiar voice said. "We're losing him!" A hand was placed on the body's head.

[Back to me now, no more of the shadowy part. K? K.]

"You know, Jakey… you're a pretty good fighter." Corey said, spitting blood from his mouth. "Thanks… I've had practice…" He tried to throw another punch at my face, but I ducked again and was just about to throw another punch to his face, but my arm was grabbed by the principal. "Jake? Corey? What's going on here?" I stared at him for a second, trying to place where I've heard his voice. "Principal Frank, I didn't do nothin." Corey said after the principal made us sit down in the office. "This little punk walked up to me, started talking shit to me, and picked a fight with me." Principal Johnson was sitting there listening to the story and he motioned to me to say my side of the story. "Principal Frank, you aren't gonna believe him, are you?" His face remained the same. "Ugh… I wasn't talking the kind of shit he's thinking of. I was standing up for poor Alex. This asshole is beating on him and nobody's doing anything. If I didn't do anything, something bad might've happened." "Okay, look. Corey, I want to enroll you in an extracurricular activity, football… or boxing." Principal Frank suggested. "Why? I hate sports…" Corey replied with a stern face. "Yeah, cause there's no little kids to beat up on." I mumbled to myself. Corey punched me hard in the arm, and actually gave me a dead-arm. "That's exactly why I'm suggesting some of those. With boxing, you can get whatever pent-up rage you have. Wouldn't it be better for your victims to fight back?" Principal Frank said with a bit of a grin. 'I have a bad feeling about that…' "It's funner when they don't." Corey simply said. "I don't want to see you back in here, Corey. If I see you do this again, I'll be forced to suspend you, or worse. Now, I want you to go to a gym at least three times a week, there's one that sponsors boxing over in Manhattan. If I see you beating up on people again, I'll be forced to take drastic measures." "Fine, PF, can I go now?" Corey said impatiently. He got up and left the room and I looked out as the door closed and stuck my tongue out at him. Childish, yes, but that was fun.

The weird thing is before the door closed, he disappeared. 'What the heck…?' "Jake? What did you think you were doing? You aren't a superhero." Principal Frank said to me. I walked to the door and opened it, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary. "Is something wrong Jake?" "Did… did Corey just disappear?" I asked in confusion. "No…" He said with a weirdly suspicious chuckle. "Is any of this real? What's going on? Where am I?" Principal Frank sighed and took off his glasses. "I was hoping you wouldn't figure it out so early." PF said, his voice gone darker. "Principal Frank…? What's going on?" All around me, the office started breaking apart. I don't even know how to describe it. But I couldn't think about that now, it felt like I was choking.

[Back in the shadowy place again]

The boy's body started having a seizure. "J'onn! Hurry!" A voice said. "I'm trying, but his mental firewalls are too strong. And "his" attack isn't making it easier!" The body stopped seizing. The mysterious person had a worried look on his face. "Don't worry, I've calmed him down. I will attempt to make contact but the Shadow's power is too strong."

[Hey, me again]

"Wh… what…?" "I was hoping you wouldn't figure it out Scorpio." Principal Frank said. "How do you know about me… Principal Frank?" I'm not sure what I should be more afraid of: the fact that my old high school principal knows who I am, the fact that he acknowledged it besides me, that I'm slowly losing my mind, or that I'm actually about to die. Again. "Principal Frank… don't you get it kid? You aren't in your school. You aren't even in your world!" I felt the grip tightening around my neck. "You're in mine! And now, I will kill the mighty Scorpio!" "No you won't!" A familiar voice called out. "WHO'S THERE?" Principal Frank shouted. The Martian Manhunter materialized between me and Principal Frank. "Release him now!" As soon as he said that, the force that was choking me suddenly released its grip on me and I could breathe again. "I do not have enough time here, so listen well Jacob. His power is strong, but yours is mightier! You are not in his world, you are in your own head! You control this world, he does not control you!" J'onn said to me. I was too rattled to understand what he meant. "Why Martian… Glad to see you again. Too bad your visit must be short." J'onn took a defensive stance. "BEGONE!" Principal Frank then slashed at him, tearing him apart…

[Better not be afraid of the dark. Heheheheheh]

…causing him to be thrown back from the boy by a mysterious force. "J'onn!" The familiar voice called out. "I… I will be fine." J'onn said as he clutched his head. "Shadow's power was too strong for me. I was able to get a message to him though. I hope he figured it out…"

[Back to being high now]

After J'onn was slashed in half and he disappeared, I fell to my knees, scared that my ally had been killed. Principal Frank looked at me. "Well well little Jake, now that that little annoyance is out of the way," He walked over to me. "Shall we get down to business?" He attempted to backhand me, but his hand went right through my head. "You…" Principal Frank tried to lift me again, but it didn't work. "If we're in my own head… then you have no power here!" His skin started to crack apart and revealed a figure shrouded in darkness. Seriously, he was a shadow. "Get out!" The shadow started screaming before he exploded into a bunch of light particles.

[Back to reality]

The young boy finally woke up. "Jake, you're alright!" I heard my dad say. "Yeah… I'm fine…" I felt really dejected. "Jake? Something wrong?" "That shadow thing showed me visions of my failures… Eric… one of my classmates… I'm not sure if I can even save Joan. Maybe I should just give up this superhero job." I said to my dad. "Don't think that way, Jake. You've done so much for the city." He replied. "Your father is right, Jacob. Without you, Lex Luthor's kryptonite nuke surely would've destroyed the city. Perhaps the whole world as well." J'onn said. "All those other things… the rest of the Justice League could handle though. Metallo, Grodd, the Scarecrow, none of those guys are my fights, J'onn…" I stood up and walked towards the door. "Where are you going Jake?" I heard my dad ask. "I just need to be alone right now…"

A while later, I found the tallest building in Metropolis and sat down on the roof to think. [Maybe J'onn's right… what if me becoming Scorpion Warrior or not would've saved Eric…] I took off my mask and looked at it, contemplating whether or not I should drop it. [What would happen if I never became Scorpion Warrior?] I sorta laughed a little because J'onn's comment popped into my head. [Not even Batman would've been able to win there.] I put on my mask then jumped off the building. [I guess I could be Scorpio for a little bit longer.] Then I swung around as the sun came up.


	41. Snow Day or Bust

Scorpion Warrior

Chapter 41

It's the middle of frikkin November and I wake up freezing my ass off for the first time since the Mr. Freeze incident, so much so that that was literally the only thing on my mind. I couldn't even keep my powers in check. When I woke up, I couldn't sit up because my sheets were sticking to my back. When I finally solved that problem, my pillow was sticking to the back of my head. Then my feet stuck to the floor and tore up the carpet. "Are you friggin kidding me?" So… I've had these new powers for… what, little more than a year now? I've never had this problem with these powers when I was this cold before. Now that I think about it, I've never been this cold since I saved Victor Fries. 'I hope Dad paid the heating bill.' "Dad? Martha? Anybody here?" Martha Blake is my dad's new girlfriend, who he's been dating for a few months. She knows what me and my dad are, and she likes to be called Chill, but she doesn't like me for some stupid reason, so I call her Martha just to screw with her. 'So I'm alone in the apartment. It's snowing outside, it's colder in here than it is outside… and my powers are screwing up.' My feet stuck to the kitchen tile when that thought crossed my mind. 'Dammit.' I saw a note on the fridge from ol' Cruella de Vil herself: Dear Krypto, I'm so sorry for the cold shoulder, but you know how us Eskimos like cold air. With much love, Chill. P.S. Not sorry after all. 'Yeah, I bet you are, Martha.'

When I got my clothes on without tearing any of it, I drove to the mountain in time to help the team set up for Wally's surprise, which didn't go as planned because he wasn't surprised. At all. Yeah, I could tell by the tone in his voice. But hey, the party was fun. The best part was his face when Artemis told him that Megan and Conner were together. I'm still wondering how I missed that. I even challenged him to an eating contest. Needless to say… he beat me.

The party ended with Batman calling the mountain and telling the team to get ready for a mission. All who was left was everyone who made up the original team roster, along with Giovanni's daughter, Zatanna. We were gathered around the monitor where Batman briefed us on what's going on with this snowstorm. "A massive ice storm has paralyzed North America from coast to coast." A holographic image of… I don't even know how to describe it… appeared and it was shooting snow everywhere. 'Well that explains the snow in the middle of November.' "Satellite imagery has detected five flying… ice fortresses of unknown origin and must be stopped." "Can't the Watchtower blow them out of the sky or something?" I looked at Wally after he asked Bats that. 'How'd he know about that?' "The league's orbiting headquarters is not weaponized… and with both Green Lanterns offworld, I need all hands on deck." I was impressed… and a little jealous. Batman actually called for a team up between the team AND the Justice League. I just wish my powers weren't whacked out. Batman told Conner to take some cycle he called the supercycle to the first ice fortress and drop Robin and Aqualad off, then continue to IF2, Miss M, Artemis, and Zatanna go to IF3.

"Other leaguers will deal with fortresses four and five. That means you too Jake." "Sorry Bats, my powers are fried." I tried shooting some webbing through the monitor, but nothing came out. "See? Even if I could join you, a dog grabbed a hold of my suit, and…" I was a little embarrassed about it and I didn't want to answer. "it's uh… still at the dry cleaners…" He just glared at me and I noticed he didn't give Wally anything. "Wait, what about Wally?" "Kid Flash, there's a young girl in Seattle who needs a heart transplant. The donor heart's in Boston, so you'll have to pick it up and run it 3000 miles across the country." "Who is she?" Wally complained in response. "Does it really matter, Wally?" I asked him. He sadly turned his stealth suit off and the rest of the team went to work. "What are you planning on doing?" I heard Batman ask me. "Not sure. I'll probably just freeze my ass off, maybe warm up in the Watchtower." Then my thoughts went to Martha and why she calls herself Chill. "Unless…" "Penny for your thoughts?" I heard Bats ask me. That made me jump a little, since I was sure he would've signed off. "I'm gonna do some investigating. Mind if I use the batcave while you and the team are off saving the city?" It was like his glare was staring into my very soul, judging me… I was starting to get scared. "I just want to investigate my dad's girlfriend. Her name's Martha Blake, but she calls herself Chill." "I'll let Alfred know you'll be there so he can help you."

So after Batman signed off, I made my way back to my dad's apartment and put on plenty of layers to attempt to warm myself up. That… didn't work. After trying for a hot shower, which… STILL didn't work, I warped up to the Watchtower to get away from all that snow. 'Since when was Jack Frost so mean?' So then I warped back down to Gotham City and, like Bats said, it was snowing here too. 'Great… I hope they're taking care of those fortresses…' I drove up and into Bruce's garage, after I told Alfred I was here, and he warmly greeted me with hot chocolate and chicken soup, no pun intended. "No wonder Bruce thinks so highly of you." Alfred chuckled a little. "Master Bruce told me you'd be stopping by, so I prepared a pot of soup for you, Master Jacob." "Thanks so much, Alfred. He didn't happened to mention why I'd be here, did he?" I asked him while I took a sip of the cocoa. "He did, and if I may be so bold, it is a strange request. Why are you investigating your father's missus?" Alfred let me down into the batcave, and that was when I told Alfred what I suspect about "Chill". "Her name's Martha Blake, but she calls herself Chill, and with those floating snow cone machines spewing snow like no tomorrow, I'm a little suspicious. I couldn't do anything over in Metropolis, due to lack of a batcave and uh… heat." I sat down at Bruce's gigantic computer with absolutely no idea how to work it. 'Oh great… if I was bad with computers before, then this is ridiculous.' "Al? Little help?"

Alfred helped me look up what I needed. "Martha was in and out of juvie as a kid, then shaped up between then and a few years ago, where she was falsely accused of something… it doesn't say what though." "I'm impressed, Master Jacob. Why, if I didn't know any better, I would have mistaken you for Master Bruce." It took me a second to realize what he meant: I was in the exact pose Bruce used the last time I was here and he was at this thing. "Alfred, can you make this give me more information?" He showed me how to do it, then I tried taking it slow. Eventually, I got the computer to give me more information. Unfortunately, it didn't say much about it. "Then why does she call herself Chill?" 'Let's see… frozen morning… cold shower… note that said something about a cold shoulder…' "What's the connection?"

Alfred caught my attention. "If I may be of assistance, Master Jacob?" "Let's see… no… all it says here is that Martha was just incarcerated, but it doesn't say why she was." I rested my chin on the keyboard base. "Perhaps it's just a wild goose chase." I sat back up and finished the rest of my bowl of soup. "Maybe. Thanks for the soup Alfred." Before I left, I saw Iris Allen-West, a GBS news reporter, talk about Hawkman, Hawkwoman, Captain Atom, and Wonder Woman taking down the fifth and final ice fortress. 'Way to go guys.' I was gonna turn it off, but the byline changed from "Justice League Downs Last Fortress" to "Queen Perdita Dead". "But this just in… despite the best efforts of Kid Flash and a team of transplant surgeons, young Queen Perdita of Vlatava died on the operating table at Seattle Medical Center…" 'Oh man…' If Alfred and I felt this bad, I wonder how Wally must've felt. 'She must've been the young girl…'

Later, I joined Batman in my Scorpio attire after that dog's mark finally washed out. "The league destroyed the five ice fortresses, but failed to capture whomever was behind them." Bats said. [A/N I don't use THAT much proper grammar, but that's how Batman says it in the episode, so I'm doin it. And the reason I didn't include Flash at the end was because Scorpio takes his place.] "But Icicle Sr., Icicle Jr., Killer Frost, and Captain Cold are by far the most like suspects." [And lastly, Scorpio cured Victor Fries of his Mr. Freeze persona, so I didn't include him here.] "That's impossible." The bald guy sitting behind the desk known as Hugo Strange turned his monitor towards us and showed us the four ice villains Batman suspected on the screen. "They were all in their cells for the duration of the crisis." Then I got curious and even more suspicious of Martha. "Thank you for your time doctor." I said to him then we left his office.

Once we got outside Belle Reve, Batman snapped me out of my daze. "You've been quiet since we left his office, Jake. Did Alfred help you find what you were looking for?" "Not entirely," I replied. "But the good doctor's statement made me as suspicious of Martha as you are of anything sometimes. But how's Wally? I heard about what happened to Queen Perdita…" Batman interrupted me before I finished my thought. "Actually, Kid Flash made it with time to spare." I had a surprised and completely confused look on my face. "Say what now?" "Funny, Robin had that same expression when he found out Kid Flash saved the young queen's life. Looks like you have a rival in the country saving business, Jake."

Robin and I both rushed into Wally's souvenir room. "Way to go Wally!" I said to him. "Kudos for saving an entire country." Robin added. "What can I say? I'm the man." Wally called out with excitement. "All right, knucklehead, don't showboat." I said to him. "So who's the better hero?" Wally asked me. I was confused again. "We both might have saved the country, but I saved the queen's life, Jake. I'll make sure not to rub it in too hard." I smirked. "So how come I'm in the Justice League and you aren't?" "Don't make me hurt you." We all laughed as we exited the room.


	42. Hello readers

Hello readers. Remember in the first chapter of the story where I wrote "After a few months of stopping criminals and foiling robberies, the Scorpion Warrior was popular."? Well, he wasn't always stopping ordinary criminals. He had his fair share of supervillains. I've been doing a bit of research into minor villains and I believe I have a spot for each of them. These next chapters won't affect the story after the last chapter; it's more of a flashback. As soon as I'm done with the research and if my brain doesn't screw me over and not come up with stories, I'll be uploading them. I'll also still be taking original villain ideas as well, to put into the mix, since there are a bunch of minor villains that I may or may not like. See you guys next time.


	43. A New Beginning

Scorpion Warrior

Mid Chapter 1 time skip

I extinguished that fire-y monster, which I still have no idea of its creation, and flew off after establishing Scorpion Warrior and becoming popular with the crowd. When I landed on the roof of my dad's apartment building, I felt a bit of a sting in my foot. "Great… my foot hurts." Fortunately it passed. "That's good." I was about to hover into my apartment, until I heard the door unlock. "Oh crap!" I flew into my room just as my dad opened the door, then I slammed my door, keeping my new strength in check to make sure I don't break it like I broke the front door this morning. "Jake?" He called for me. "You here buddy?" 'He doesn't know about what I can do… what do I do?' "In my room, dad. I'm not decent." I practically tore off my costume and chucked it into my closet.

"Did you see the news? One of my cops told me some kid in your BMX outfit went into a bank and beat up some bank robbers. Was that you?" My dad asked me from out in the living room. I walked out buttoning up a shirt and had to make up an excuse on the spot. 'No use lying.' "That couldn't have been me, I was at Eric's all afternoon." Well… I didn't mean to him, now did I? I walked over to one of the grocery bags he put on the counter and emptied it, stealing a can of root beer for myself. Just on cue, Eric comes through the door. "How goes it Smith Family?" "What's goin on Eric?" I tossed a can to Eric and we both got into a chugging contest. Which ended with a big burp from me and my ending up on the floor. "Good god! Was that me?" "Dude, way to practice!" Eric congratulated me. "Well, Eric, when Jake rejoins us back on Planet Earth, tell him I went back to work." My dad said as he walked out the door.

Eric helped me up and asked me the exact same question my dad asked me. Well… no use lying. "Yeah, Eric. That was me." Then he burst out laughing. "That was the best lie you've ever told, Jake. Did you tell that to your dad?" "You done?" After he finally calmed down and stopped laughing, I was finally able to get a word out. "I told him I was chilling out in your place." He got a confused look on his face while he got a few giggles out. "But you weren't." I got a sly grin on my face. "Exactly." "Okay prove it." I stuck an elbow on the kitchen counter and challenged him to an arm wrestle, something I've never been able to beat him at. "This is just sad, Jake. You want me to beat you again?" "Okay," I said. "How's this: you win and I tell you the truth." "Oh, you are on." He grabbed my hand and tried pushing it to win for the hundredth time, but my hand wouldn't budge. "Okay… so you've hit the gym lately. Time to really try this time." I felt him put more pressure on, and my hand still wouldn't budge. I wasn't even trying. I poked a finger in his palm and effortlessly pushed his hand down, causing him to shoot back in surprise. "That's no gym, Eric. You believe me now?" He looked at me square in the eye and said, "Fly." That's it. Nothing else. Just fly. So I did. I flew over the kitchen counter and landed right on the couch in the living room. "Wha… how… what… when?" He couldn't get the right words. "SciLab." I simply responded.

"Wait… are you talking about the science lab we went to last week?" Eric asked me. "The very one." I answered as I hovered up and lifted the couch. "Dude! Do you know what this means?" Eric asked again with an excited grin on his face. I set the couch back down. "I'm a freak?" I responded with a sarcastic tone in my voice. "Yeah, but you can also be a crime fighter!" "I did beat up a dude trying to mug me yesterday and then I cleaned out a bank robbery. Oh, and gave a monster made completely out of fire a bath." I said, half-agreeing with Eric. No matter how many times I say that or think about that, I will never understand what that means. "Don't you realize you're Superman?" Eric said to me. "Yeah… I doubt that I'm an alien from Krypton, Eric." "You could've been his son, right? And your dad could've adopted you." I lifted up my sleeve covering the gnarly scar I got on my shoulder after that jacked up parkour stunt last year and showed it to him. I flashed him a look and raised both eyebrows hoping he'd get the hint. "If I was Superman's kid, this would not have happened. Nah man, I was my parents' flesh and blood." Eric sat down next to me on the couch. "What was your mom like?"

I completely forgot he never met her. I met him almost three years after she died. After she died, my dad couldn't have always taken care of me. I didn't want to go anywhere at all. My dad had to hire a private tutor to help me. One day, he actually forced me to go to school to get over my depression; I was so sad when he dropped me off at school. I started hearing whispers about what happened. I couldn't do anything… wouldn't… yet Eric was the first to talk to me that whole morning. He's always been cheerful and upbeat. When he first started talking to me, I ignored him. I didn't want anything to do with anybody. But the kid just would not let up. By that afternoon, I asked him why he wanted to talk to me. He told me his pet dog died a few months ago, so he tried to understand what I was going through. "Dog? Sorry Eric… but it's not really the same." I told him. "It sort of is…" It was lunch time and he followed me to the same table I sat at. At that point, I didn't really care. I just wanted the day to be over with. Eric smuggled a couple cans of root beer; he took a swig and let out a big burp. I couldn't help but smile. "See Jake? It won't be so bad." I tried to ignore him, but he challenged me to make a bigger one. I tried ignoring that, but I couldn't. I could never resist a challenge. That's one of the ways my dad got me to go to school. I took Eric up on his offer and let out a bigger burp. I just cracked up. The first time I've ever truly been happy. Since then, we've been the best of friends. He's always been challenging me, keeping my spirits up. Eventually, in 9th grade, he challenged me to go visit my mom's grave, something I've never been able to do. I had to do it. I visited my mom, even though I didn't know what to do or say, it was just nice. Like I had a big weight lifted off my shoulders. I owed my life to him. If my dad didn't drop me off, we probably would've had to move out of New York and into someplace like California or Hawaii. I never would've met Eric, but I might've met somebody else and they would've done the same, but come 12th grade, I wouldn't have gone to that research lab, I never would've tried to impress Danielle, and I never would've gotten my powers. I owed him everything.

"She was great." Was the only thing I could say. "One of the greatest moms a boy could ever have."

"Hurry up, Jake. You're going to be late for fourth period." I heard Eric say on my Bluetooth. "Again…" He added. "I'll be there. I just heard a bank alarm over in Manhattan." I responded. "But that's half an hour away. You'll never make it back. How'd you hear that from all the way here in Queens?" "I dunno. My ears have been really good the last few days." It's true. Just the other day, the captain of the football team beaned me in the back of the head with a football, but I heard it coming. It still hit me, since I didn't know what was even going on. "I heard something going on over here though, so I thought I'd check it out."

I landed at the entrance to a little corner market just in time to see a guy named William Kavanagh run right into me and fall flat on his ass. "What the hell? Hey kid, Halloween isn't until October. Now move before I get angry." I stepped aside and almost let him run by me, had my foot not been in his way to trip him. Before he completely fell, again, I grabbed him by the seat of his pants. "Oh, I'm sorry. Was my foot in your way?" I said in a mocking tone. I heard Eric laugh a little on the other end. "Let me go, you freak!" I carried him up about five stories and dangled him by his ankle. "Wanna rephrase that, Kavanagh?" I asked him. "Easy Jake, don't turn into a scary hero." Eric said again. William looked up towards me. "How do you know my name?" "You've been in and out of prison. I saw the police database. You've been quite the naughty little boy, haven't you?" He started flailing around, trying to get out of my grip. "Give that up, Kavanagh. I can hold you up like this all day if I want." "No you can't, Jake. Fourth period's in ten minutes." Eric said. "I just realized I have a previous engagement… so uh…" I flew Kavanagh over to a police station, dropped him off, and got to class with two minutes to spare. "Dude, cut it closer why don't you?" Eric said playfully. "Where's your costume?" "Safely tucked away in my bag." I answered. "Won't somebody see it?" I zipped open my bag and pulled back a false wall where the costume was folded. "That's why it took me so long."

A while later, Kavanagh's jail cell opened up. The jailer who did so walked up, "Hey Kavanagh, somebody actually posted your bail. Get outta here." William walked outside and a limo door opened up for him. "Hello, Kavanagh." The stranger in the limo said to him. "Who're you?" "Is that any way to greet your bailer?" Kavanagh looked cautious at this mysterious benefactor, but he got in. "So who are you… sir?" Kavanagh asked with a bit of suspicion in his voice. "I represent the Meta/Tech Corporation. We deal with genetic experiments." "No way, man. I was a druggie once, not doing that again." Kavanagh interrupted. "Oh no, you misunderstand. We give you power." The benefactor said, a strange calm in his voice. "Power, huh? I would like to beat down that punk in the orange tights for makin a monkey outta me." Kavanagh said, reasoning with himself. "Okay… you got yourself…" "A monkey?" The benefactor mused. "Don't push me. You got yourself a guinea pig." The benefactor simply smiled.

For the next few days, I would beat up purse thieves, carjackers, and the like, all the while secretly helping my dad put away people like them. I was still in the early stages of my career, though, so I wasn't too popular around the city. And hey, this IS New York after all. There isn't anybody out there who would want to do wrong, so that's plenty of time to help around the city. I did get a few close calls with my dad, him almost catching me in my costume and everything, but I was able to dodge around him.

One day, I was bored, sitting on the couch, with absolutely nothing to do, when I hear a bunch of loud banging on the door. "Hey, whoever's there, stop. You're giving me a headache." "Jake! Open up, it's Eric!" My dad was out of town, so I flew over to the door and opened it. "Time to get in costume. There's a talking… pterodactyl… destroying downtown. He calls himself Airstryke. You gotta get down there, man!" I flew to my room and threw on my costume. I was almost out the window when Eric caught me. "I think he knows you. He called you out. Also, I'm not sure… but he sounds familiar." I nodded an understanding and flew out the window. It took me ten minutes to remember how to get downtown, more if I didn't have Eric on the phone.

When I got there, a big kick knocked me out of the sky and right through a building. "Jake? You okay?" I heard Eric say. "Yeah…" I replied trying to unstick myself from the wall. "I just got blasted out of the sky…" As soon as I freed myself, I felt a big kick to my back. Next thing I know, I bellyflopped the sidewalk. "Ow…" As I got up, I heard something land behind me. I staggered to my feet as I saw a big… exactly what Eric described. "So… you must be Airstryke…" I said, completely out of breath. I felt a sharp pain run up my arm. "Hey, you've heard of me." The pterodactyl mocked. "Why are you doing this?" I asked him, hoping to talk to him. "You ruined me! Made a fool of me!" That didn't make too much sense until I figured it out. "**Kavanagh?**" "That's right! And now, I'm going to take these powers and kill you with them!" He swiped across my chest with his hand and clawed me right across the chest. Which hurt. I clutched at my chest and saw 4 streaks of blood. "Jake!" Eric called. "Don't worry… I'm alright…" Before I knew what else was going on, though, he opened his mouth and an extremely loud screech just came out and I was on the ground, clutching my ears in pain. Unfortunately, I couldn't take the Bluetooth out because it was inside my mask, so I don't even know what happened with him.

[At Jake's apartment]

After regaining his senses, Eric went back to the phone. "Jake? You there? Answer me! Jake!"

[Back to me]

When I regained consciousness, I was about 100 feet in the air getting the life choked out of me by Airstryke. "What do you… plan on doing now…?" "Maybe I'll choke you until you die, tear off this little mask, then drop you to the ground. Or maybe I'll just choke you until you go unconscious instead of killing you." I was moments away from losing consciousness. It's poetic really… my first big fight and I'm about to die… "No!" I gathered all the strength in my hand and punched him as hard as I could in the elbow. "Ow! You son of a bitch! You broke my elbow!" I was able to catch my breath in no time. "Hey Kavanagh!" He looked up and I sent an uppercut straight to the lower jaw.

Five minutes later, I noticed the police was there, so I gave Kavanagh right on over to them. Again. "No normal jail cell will hold him." I said to the police. "Don't worry, Scorpio," One of the cops replied. "We know where to send him." I gave them a two fingered salute and reminded the cop that called me Scorpio what my name was and flew off.

Another ten minutes later, I found my way back to my dad's apartment and knocked on the window. "Dude! Way to go!" Eric called out after he opened it. "How was your first day being a superhero?" He asked me. I sat down on the couch, took off the mask, and pointed at the cuts Kavanagh left my costume as a parting gift. "Let's just say… I'm gonna need some help…"


	44. A New Beginning Part 2

Scorpion Warrior

Chapter 1

Mid-timeskip

It was two days after I beat Airstryke and I have never been more bored in my life… though I was in class, so that must explain why. Then a new girl I've never seen before walked into the classroom talking to the teacher. After they finished talking, she sat down next to me; I waved to her after she took her seat then went back to laying my head down on the desk. "Jake, I know sleep is good, but your desk is not a pillow. Nor is it a bed. Please sit up and pay attention." Eric shot a spitball at me as I sat up, and I took the ball and flicked it back at him. Unfortunately, I was still new to the whole superpowers thing and I hurt his arm. He shot me a look and I immediately sat straight up looking quite embarrassed.

The new girl looked over to me with a smirk. (So is this what you think about?) I had a confused look on my face as I looked around hoping to look for whoever said that. Nobody said that. "Hey, Jake, you okay? What's wrong?" Eric whispered to me. "I… don't know…" I whispered back "Did you hear something?" I asked him. He shook his head no, so I laid my head back down on my desk. "That… was weird…" I mumbled to myself. The new girl looked forward towards the teacher. (Better sit up before the teacher catches you, Jakey.) I shot up out of my chair and called out, "**Okay, who is that?**" Everybody was looking at me. "Dude, what the hell, freak?" One student asked me. "Jake, sit down." The teacher said. The new girl was next to respond, "What Jake?" "Who is what?" The teacher asked next. "Uh… I don't know… I gotta get some air." I walked out the room and to a bathroom, where I went to splash water on my face. Eric came in and leaned on the faucet counter. "Jake? Hey, you okay man?" I shook my head weirdly. "I don't know… I was hearing voices in my head." "You think that's a side effect of you-know-what?" Eric asked me. I laughed a little. "Now who's crazy?" (Oh, of the you-know-what, Jakey? Is this about me?) I heard the voice in my head say again. "**Who are you? Why are you doing this?**" A kid ran out of one of the stalls and out of the bathroom after I shouted that. "Jake! Calm down!" Eric shouted to me. (Why should I tell you? You'll just figure it out yourself. Besides, I'm just having fun. Why should I stop?) Then I felt a weird sensation like a big whoosh… like that big buzz you get when you feel a NASCAR zoom past you… hit my head. "Okay… I think… I think her voice is gone." I punched a mirror and got a few shards of glass in my hand, which I shook out; the resulting cuts to my hand healing. "Holy…" I heard Eric mumble under his breath.

The next day was the weekend. After all that happened yesterday, I am seriously glad I have this time away from the school. Unfortunately… there was a knock at the door and that woke me up. "It's 6:15 in the morning…" I walked groggily over to the door in nothing but the shirt I wore yesterday and a pair of boxers. "Eric…? Is that you?" I said through a big yawn. I heard a female voice giggle through the door. "Nope, it's just me, Hope." 'Definitely not Eric.' "Who's Hope?" I said through to the door, while teetering on the threshold of consciousness. "I'm your friend." I heard the voice say. I was a little confused, but wouldn't you be at 6:16 in the morning? "My friend? I don't know anybody named Hope…" I said through another yawn. "Come back in an hour…" I tried walking over to the couch in the living room so I could fall back asleep, but my body turned around and opened the door without me doing it. "Whoa… what's going on?" I said, slightly more awake than before. The door latch only let the door open an inch or two. "I guess you wanted me to come in." The voice said again. "I didn't invite you in, though. And I definitely didn't want to open the door. Come back when I'm awake." I let out another big yawn as I closed the door and walked back over to the couch and fell asleep again.

The next morning, while I was walking to lunch, I heard some footsteps coming up behind me. I turned around, ready to fight, until I saw my friend, Alex. "Hey Jake. What's with the fighting stance?" She said to me. "I'm sorry. I'm just a little jumpy. Something really strange happened last night." She blinked awkwardly while she was walking next to me. "What do you mean?" I stared off into space, trying to remember what happened. "Something funky in my dreams." "Anything else?" Alex asked me again. "Let's see…" I racked my brain. "I started hearing voices in my head. They started around the time this girl sat next to me, but I don't know… I think it's because of that accident." "I want you to come to my apartment." She simply said. "Your apartment?" I repeated. "It's next to yours." I was confused. "It is? Since when?" "For about two weeks." I looked at her, wide-eyed. "How did I miss that?" I thought about my dad and how he's the chief of police of Metropolis PD. "How did my dad miss that?" Alex giggled a little. "Anyway, meet me at my apartment. You're dealing with a girl who can mess with you and your life." I looked at her with a weird look on my face. "Who? How?" "It's Hope!" She said to me. I was confused again. "Who's Hope?" I asked her. "Seriously? Dude, you know who she is." She scolded. "Not really, no." She was about to say something, but stopped herself, and just simply shook her head and sighed. "Just come to my apartment." I shrugged and agreed to meet her at the apartment with Eric.

"This isn't your floor, Jake." Eric said surprised. "Guess that explains why we keep missing each other." I replied. Alex sat down on her sofa. "What do you mean?" "Are we on different floors?" I asked Alex. "I'm right above you." She replied. "So YOU'RE the one who kept me up half the night last year?" "Sorry about that. My alarm clock kept messing up." She said sheepishly. "Well, at least you fixed it." I looked around her place while Eric sat down on the sofa. "Nice place you got here, Alex." He said to her. "Dude, it's like my place." I said to him. "Except nicer." Alex giggled a little. "Anyway, on to the reason I wanted to meet you here. You remember Hope?" I looked at her confused. "Who's Hope?" "Isn't she the new girl in history?" I shrugged. "Somebody came over to my apartment a while ago and she said her name was Hope. I was half-asleep so I don't remember half of what happened that morning." Eric and I took a look at each other before I fell in a chair laughing my ass off, but he didn't find it as funny. "Actually, remember on the news?" I heard Eric say. "Airstryke wanted blood after Scorpion Warrior sent him to jail." I'm gonna have to get used to that.

"Jake, I'm serious! She can enter your mind and force you to do whatever she wants." After I was able to calm down and stop laughing, I saw Eric had a look of concern on his face. "Remember Airstryke, Jake?" He said with emphasis in his voice. 'That's right… Airstryke was a pterodactyl. Kavanagh turned himself into that thing to get revenge on me…' I was finally able to stop laughing and calm down. I got up and walked towards the door. "Eric and I will just have to keep an eye out for this Hope girl." Eric got up and followed me to the door. "Wait," Alex said. "Would you like to stay for dinner?" I was about to answer, but I heard a call for help. Or at least, I hope it was. "Uh… no thanks. There's something I gotta do with my dad." I started walking out the apartment, then set into a sprint.

Eric followed after me at the elevator. "Jake, what's up?" "I heard somebody. Somebody far." I said to him. He looked around to make sure there was nobody around. "Are you sure it was somebody actually yelling? Given what happened lately, are you sure you're needed?" I concentrated for a second and heard somebody again. "I heard her again." Eric looked confused. "Her? Jake, make sure. Is it Hope?" I had a concerned look on my face. "I don't know, man. When she came over, it was like 6:15 in the morning. I was dead tired, I'm don't remember what she sounded like." "Well think about this: Did she sound like it came from out there? Or was it like when you first started hearing those voices?" I nodded with a relieved look on my face and then felt that same feeling I felt in the bathroom leave my head. "Whoa… you're right." He grinned. "Come on, it's late. Let's get going."

A few days later, it was Monday and Eric and I were walking into our history class; I was wearing a beanie that I fitted with some tinfoil. After I told him, he practically beat me upside the head with my dad's newspaper. "You're insane." He said to me. "Maybe, but those crazy people in the psych ward are constantly doing it. I'm just making it more subtle." "You think it'll work?" Eric asked me. "Well people already think I've lost it. If these voices are a side effect of that accident two weeks ago, I'll go check myself in to the local psych ward. If not, then my hearing must be better than I thought. Plus, you'll owe me twenty bucks." I said coolly. Last night, I begged Eric to switch seats with me, so today I sat in his seat. The new girl looked at him, and he looked back with a nervous look on his face. But all she did was look forward to the chalkboard.

'Oh crap… itchy head… is it seriously not used to wearing hats yet?' Oh the irony… I tried to ignore the itch, but it just would not go away. I couldn't help but scratch it, and I think it started to get on everybody's nerves because they were all staring at me. "Jake? What's wrong?" My teacher, Mr. Hoop, asked me. "Not used to hats. I'm itching like mad." Eric and some of the other students looked like they were getting ready to kill me. "Either take it off or go to the nurse." I got up and walked to the door, but I was stopped by my teacher. "If you leave, you'll be marked absent and docked points." I sat down trying not to scratch my head.

Later that day, I was out on the street facing down somebody who was holding somebody hostage. "Come on, buddy. You and I both know how all this is gonna go down. Let the dude go..." I picked up a pebble that was on the ground. "and I won't have to hurt you too hard." "Are you serious? W-what are you gonna do with a little rock?" The dude asked frantically. "Come on, Jake. Don't gamble with an innocent person's life like that…" Eric said on the Bluetooth. "Don't worry, I know what I'm doing." I responded quietly. (Oh, so this is what you do in your off-time, Jakey?) There was that voice again. "**WHERE ARE YOU? SHOW YOURSELF!**" My attention was completely taken off the dude and the criminal. Before I knew it, I heard a loud bang, a sharp pain in my shoulder, and a wet spot in that same area with that sharp pain. I looked down at it, then back to the criminal. "Did you really just shoot me?" I tried to fling the pebble at the guy's gun, but I missed and smacked him in the head. Then I lost all the strength in my body and fell to the ground.

(Oh, Jakey, wake up.) I shot up again and almost yelled in anger before I realized where I was… "Where am I?" "You're in the Batcave." I heard a British voice behind me and turned around. "Who are you?" I asked him. He replied with a simple, "I'm Batman." I looked at him confused. "You're Batman?" He had a look of surprise in his eyes while I looked at him from head to toe. "Do you actually believe me?" "Nope." I said. I was about to say why, but I felt the same sharp pain in my shoulder and, once again, that same wet spot in the same spot on my shoulder. "Be careful, you popped a stitch." He said as he checked my shoulder. "Wait, a stitch? Where am I? Who brought me here?" I asked the guy as he examined me. "I already told you, you're in the Batcave." "And I brought you here." I heard a gruff voice that sounded kinda like Clint Eastwood. I turned and looked at him while the dude with the mustache stitched my bullet wound again. "Who are you?" I asked him. "I'm Batman." I looked surprised. "Batman? Wait… Clint Eastwood is Batman?" "I'm Alfred, Batman's butler," The dude with the mustache said while he stitched up the front of my shoulder. "You're lucky to have survived." "Yeah, well… when you're a big time superhero like me, then it's no wonder I survived." I said with a grin on my face. "A kid? A big time superhero?" Alfred mused. "That's a laugh." I was confused. "I'm not a kid, I'm the Scorpion Warrior…" I said, trying to disguise my voice. "Nice try kid." I was still confused.

I saw a little mirror and then a bitch of my hair in it. I grabbed it and saw my face… without my mask. And a few more stitches there too. "You were lucky as in that guy on the street was Floyd Lawton. An assassin and mercenary who's deadly with a gun." Batman said. "You'd be dead if it wasn't for me. Those stitches on your cheek was from Floyd missing you after I hit him with a batarang." "So… the bullet in my shoulder…" "Actually completely missed every vital artery. It must've been a warning shot." Alfred said.

Later that same afternoon, after Batman gave me permission to leave that cave thing, I made my way back to my dad's apartment. I got out of my costume right as my dad got home. "Jake? Are you here?" I walked out of my room and my dad saw the cut. "What happened?" He said as he touched the stitches. "I got into a little fight at school. You should see the other guy." I said, laughing a little. "I went up to the nurse and she stitched me up. It's not as bad as it looks."

After the events of the last few weeks, I was glad to fall asleep. Hope was sitting on the windowsill. "Hmm… let's see what he's dreaming about." She said before entering my dream.

The city was Queens. Scorpion Warrior was flying around, patrolling, making sure the city was safe. No mind reader was able to tell his secret identity so easily. I flew to a little diner that was in the middle of getting robbed, unknowingly being followed by Hope. I landed at the front doors while the guy was running out, and he stopped right before he hit me. "No! Not you!" He put a gun down and surrendered to the police without a fight. Hope landed behind me. "Hey Jake." I was confused as to who this Jake person was. I turned around and looked at the young girl. "Jake? Who's Jake? I'm the Scorpion Warrior." She giggled and looked at me. "Don't play the superhero card on me. I know it's you. Why don't you just tell me?" I had a confused look on my face. "I… don't know what you're talking about, Miss, but I have to keep patrolling the streets of Queens and make sure everybody's safe and out of harm."

I flew off and she tried again. "Jake Smith!" "Look, Miss, I don't know who this Jake person is." I heard a call for help. "I have to go." The young girl picked up the gun and called for me, "Wait!" I turned around and looked at the girl. "I can't. I have to go." I flew off towards the source of the call. She glowered until she found a way to get my attention again. "Help! Help!" I sighed and flew back towards the young girl's call after saving the first call. "Now what do you need help with?" She gave a smirk and pulled the guy's gun on me. "This!" She tried pulling the trigger, but nothing happened. "Guns don't seem to work on me. Now, if you'll excuse me, I must go." "Wait!" I was starting to get mad, but I calmed down and turned back to her. "If you want an autograph, I'd be more than happy to give one to you." She shook her head. "No, that's not it." She pulled off the hood that makes up my costume's mask and revealed another mask. "What would you like to see?" I asked her, confused about her reaction. "The look on your face when I tell you you're in a dream!" She called out to me.

I looked at her for a second before I chuckled a little. "Ha. A dream? Silly." I was about to confidently fly away, but then I got to thinking. "No… no this can't be a dream. When I appear, bad guys quake in their feet. But why doesn't that always happen? Usually, they'll want to fight back… or run away… am I really in a dream?" "Yes you are!" The girl called out to me. "But…" My costume faded away. "But… this can't be a dream. Has my whole career been a lie?" She appeared in front of me. "Yes, it has. You are in a dream. You were never the Scorpion Warrior. This is just a lame costume you put together. They aren't really afraid of you." I had a strange look on my face after taking a good look at the girl's face. "Do I know you?" She shook her head. "Uh… no. No you don't Jake." "But you keep calling me Jake." I sort of… half squinted at her. "If you don't know me, why do you call me Jake?"

I turned around and started to walk away, but a wall appeared in front of me. I turned around quickly and looked at her. I was almost about to ask who she was, but I ran right into a wall. I was in the middle of a dark room. "Hey! What's going on?" There was no answer, so I started feeling around for a wall. I found one, then tried punching it. "What are you doing?" I felt the wall push into me, then I realized the walls were closing in.

[In reality]

Hope smirked while my sleeping body started sweating.

[In dreamland]

"If this is a dream, how are you here?" I was laying down on the ground, just about ready to give up. "I can't be here?" The time spent in the box, which went completely dark, helped me concentrate. "Wait a minute, you sound familiar." I said to her. "You were the one talking to me!" "Hey! You got it!" I heard her say from outside the darkness. I heard her laugh as she stepped inside the darkness. "There's no way out Jake." "What do you want from me?" I asked Hope with despair in my voice. "Oh Jake, there's a lot I need you to do." I felt like I gave up hope. I was starting to sweat and run out of breath. "What… is it?" "I'll let you out on one condition: You have to give up fighting evil." I was starting to lose concentration. "I can't… I was given these powers in an accident and I need to use them." I stood up, but I was weak. She smirked. "Why couldn't you use them FOR evil? With our powers, we could've taken over the world!" I looked at her. "What do you mean? You're evil…?" She smirked and laughed evilly. "Yup. Thought you knew that, Jake." At this point, I could barely see her. "I didn't know that… but now I do… I have to beat you… to save myself…"

[In reality]

I had a scared look on my face as I was tossing and turning and sweating like mad.

[Back to Dream Jake]

"If you want to beat me, you'll have to escape from the box." Hope said as she faded away into the darkness and the darkness turned back into the box. "How? Nevermind…" I put my hands on two sides of the box. "If this is a dream like she says it is…" I closed eyes and the next thing I knew, the box was gone. "Well, that's impressive." I saw her surround herself with a green flame and she turned herself into a dragon that looked exactly like Maleficent's dragon form from Snow White. "Oh crap." was the only thing I said before she smacked me into a wall. "So, little boy, you said you were going to beat me?" I pulled myself out from the wall and looked at her. "Why are you doing this to me?" She transformed herself back into her human form and went right in my face. "BECAUSE YOU REJECTED ME!" I was confused. "What do you mean?" There were tears streaming down her face. "You don't remember?" I shook my head, even more confused than before. "Maybe this will help!" My vision went from a blank slate sort of world to one of a day that looks really familiar. "What is this?" I saw a girl who looked like Hope walk up to me and ask me out. "Wait… this… this looks familiar…" It was 10th grade and this was a day I would never forget.

"Hope… I'm sorry… I was having a bad day." She narrowed her eyes towards me. "What happened…" "That was the anniversary of my mom's death." She shrugged and looked away. "So? My parents both died… you don't see me crying over it…" I looked down at my feet. "She died when I was four." "They died when I was two. I bounced around until I went to live with a friend… an older friend." I didn't say anything. "You're lucky you had someone to turn to. I could never…" The green flames came back and she turned into Maleficent's dragon again. "It's too late to apologize to me Jake! Nothing you can do can help!" She took her big foot and stomped it on me.

I was able to use my strength to push it off of me though. I pushed it off to the side, which toppled her after I threw her leg into her other leg. Then I smirked. "If this is a dream, then I can definitely win!" I gained my Scorpion Warrior costume back then grew to the same size as Hope, while she regained her previous stature. She tried snapping at me, but I dodged. "And since this is my dream, I can kick you out!" I closed my eyes and tried to eject her again, but she interrupted me with a swipe to the chest. I reeled back in shock. "Sorry Jakey, I'm not one of your dreams. I'm the real deal!" That actually hurt. "I have more power in here than you could ever imagine!"

Clutching my chest, I looked straight at her. "Well then I'll just have to fight you!" I flew towards her and launched an uppercut, but she dodged it. "I'm psychic! I know your moves way before you do! Like right now. I predict you'll fly up and dodge my swipe!" She was about to swipe at me, and I had planned on flying up to dodge, but then I had a thought. I could trick her. Her paw almost connected with me, and then I noticed she was doing something with her neck. She was reeling it back. I bet she was planning to swallow me after I flew up. So then, instead of flying upwards, I grabbed her foot again. That made her lunge her head forward and snap at nothing. "**What the?**" "I knew it!" She looked at me. "What do you mean?" I gave another smirk while I took her foot and threw her against another wall. 'Should I tell her my plan? If I do, she'll know…' Then my eyes grew wide. 'If she's psychic, she already knows.' "Then that's exactly what I'll do." Hope got back to her feet. "What are you talking about?" I laughed a little. "You're the psychic, you tell me." She roared. "You're planning on tricking me?" I nodded. "That's right. And after what I just did to you, there's no way you'll try risking close combat. You're about to try and burn me!" "And you'll just fly out of the way. With my power, you don't want to risk anything!" I shrugged. "Let's find out!" She launched a fireball at me, but I DIDN'T fly up! I flew through! Then I slammed right into her. That gave me the opportunity to fight. I did a flying uppercut on her, which she couldn't dodge this time.

Unfortunately, she went down. "Well… that wasn't as fun as I hoped it was." She weakly opened her eyes. "H-how?" I folded my arms. "Easy. I tricked you. Now get out!"

[Back in reality once again]

I woke up to Hope giving a quick scream and fell to the floor. Then I looked at her, remembering everything that happened in the dream. "I'm sorry…" I flew over to the nearest hospital as Scorpion Warrior and handed her off to a nurse after I explained everything. "I found her like this. I don't know what happened to her."

Well… maybe not everything.

[Some time later]

I was fighting someone with big feet who calls himself Kangorr. His kick sent me flying halfway across the lower east side of Metropolis. After I finally came to a stop, which basically meant crashing into a little diner, I saw somebody who looked WAY to familiar to just be a coincidence. "Eric!?"


	45. Alien Force

Scorpion Warrior

Chapter 42

"This is great. I needed a vacation." I just wish Karen was on Earth to enjoy Niagara Falls with me. I haven't seen her for almost two months. 'Guess I'll just enjoy this vacation for the both of us.' The salty air was doing great for me. I've had a cold since the whole thing with the ice fortresses back in November and I'm glad that I'm here. The boat ride and the spray from the falls stinging my face made it all the better. Then I heard a guy screaming as he fell off the side of the boat. 'Oh what a time to have my costume under my clothes.' I leapt off the side of the boat as well and swam after him, but I wasn't fast enough and saw some weird fish thing with a head that looked like an anglerfish get to him first. They leapt out of the water and then, somehow, the weird fish turned into a giant bug with four eye stalks on his head and the bug carried the guy back to the boat. It didn't surprise me half as much as an anglerfish wearing human clothes because I've seen that green flash, and that little hourglass that was on the bug's face before. 'Ben?'

A while later, I caught up with Ben and the others at a park. "If you could go from alien to alien," I asked him while he shot some of Stinkfly's goo into Gwen's pudding. "Why didn't you do that back in Ohio?" "This is sort of new." He said as he flew off laughing at Gwen. "You've been Stinkbutt for hours. Give it a rest, dweeb!" She said to Ben. "No way! I'm having fun! And look how much money I'm making giving rides to tourists." "Why didn't I think of that?" I asked myself, nearly gagging at Stinky's smell. "I'd rather see your jerky face." Gwen said coldly. "She's right, y'know. You shouldn't be like that all the time. You might not be able to change back." I was thinking of one of my favorite books I used to read as a kid where the people could change into animals at will, though with a time limit of two hours. Ben passed that limit some time ago, according to Gwen. "But seriously though, you should go back to being a human again." "Oh… alright." He said, moping. "I'll take it easy." He flew away, but came back as another alien, XLR8, and sped off with Max's pudding. "Does he do that often?" I asked them. "More than I like." Gwen replied.

I couldn't help myself, though, and decided to join Ben in his antics, like bungee jumping off a bridge and hocking loogies off of a tram (I was using my webs as a loogie since he was cheating with his aliens). Then I felt that all too familiar sensation in my head. I looked around but saw nothing. 'What? Who's…' Next thing we all know, Vilgax rips open the roof of the tram. "I'd say Diamondhead had the better loogie." Some freaky mixup of Ben's aliens said mockingly. 'VILGAX? But I thought I trapped him in Ben's Null Void.' Vilgax reaches down and grabs Heatblast. Then he touches the little hourglass on his chest and he gets turned back to Ben. I wanted to do something, but with Vilgax having a sidekick who looks like he has all of Ben's alien's powers, I couldn't risk Gwen and Max getting hurt. Besides, with his quick-changing, he can take care of himself. "Once the containment field neutralizes the omnitrix, grab it." Vilgax said to the alien jumble, who then yelled at him for giving a command.

They were distracted long enough for Ben to disappear. "Hey, guys? He kinda disappeared." I said to Vilgax and the other dude. He bent down and grabbed something in his gigantic claws. "You can't escape me that easily!" One big green flash later and Vilgax loses his grip on Diamondhead, sending him just about off the edge of the tram; he then started fighting the alien puzzle. After he was thrown into the pylon holding us to the cable, the pulley system started breaking apart, barely holding on by a thread. "So… who wants to fill me in?" I asked Gwen and Max. "The alien rubix cube is named Kevin Levin. Some time ago, on the Golden Gate Bridge, he was turned into that because of feedback from the omnitrix. Can't you do something?" Gwen said to me. "No. If I do, Vilgax'll figure it out and the last time we met, he wasn't really all keen on seeing me again." 'But how'd I not hear about all that?' Kevin slammed into the barge below us and Vilgax tackled him too, while the tram's cable snapped. I leapt up onto the roof just in time to catch the cable and the pulley, but we weren't out of the woods yet. We were rapidly falling towards the cliff side. 'Oh crap!' All of a sudden, Stinkfly flies up and grabs Gwen and Max. Then the cable I was holding on to snapped again, then I shot a web towards the cliff and swung towards it.

I swung back onto the walkway and saw Gwen and Max, but no Ben. "What's going on?" "Come with me." Max said. He looked at me. "You too, Jake. This'll answer your question you had about the null void projector back in Ohio." We got up to his RV, which he called the Rustbucket, and he pushed something on the cupboard. "What'll that do?" He looked at me again and grinned. "You'll see." Something swung down and a big compartment lowered itself down behind it. There was a doorway which opened up to reveal a gun that looked exactly like the gun I used that opened the portal to trap Vilgax in that first time. "How did you get your hands on one of those guns?" I opened my backpack and pulled out my weird flashlight gun. "I thought we left that thing back at the plumber's base at Mount Rushmore…" Gwen said. That left me even more confused than I originally thought. Max just smiled.

While we were driving, Max was telling me everything. "Since we know your secret, I can tell you mine. I'm part of an intergalactic peace keeping force known as the plumbers." I just stared at him. "You keep the galaxy safe from alien clogs?" I said, half-joking, half-serious. "Not exactly. We're an outer space police force." Then it clicked. "Just like the Green Lantern Corps!" They both looked at me confused. "There are other superheroes besides me, you know." "Anyway…" Max interrupted. "if Vilgax is back, he's probably looking for Ben." I was confused. "Why does he want Ben? If I were him, I'd be looking for me for revenge after what happened in Ohio." We got to the bridge and we all stepped out… and greeted Vilgax and Kevin. 'Oh crap!' "Max! Look!" I called to him. "When I have the omnitrix, I shall enjoy tearing you apart, Tennyson!" Max turned around and stared Vilgax and Kevin down. "Why wait? Come and get me!" When he said that, he fired the null void projector at them and the same portal that I used to trap Vilgax back in Ohio appeared behind them. Ben, however, rushed in and ran towards them. "Ben stay back!" Max called out to him. "Jake, do something!" Gwen said to me. "I can't… I might risk exposing my secret…!" In truth, I was trying not to get pulled in. My feet were doing everything they could to keep me from getting pulled in. It was too late anyway. Vilgax and Kevin were sucked into the portal. Ben tried stopping, but Vilgax's big, meaty claw grabbed Diamondhead's face and pulled him in. The portal disappeared. "What was that?" I asked Max and Gwen.

"You called that a Null Void Projector, Gwen. Is there more than one Null Void which Vilgax was able to somehow escape from? Is there only one?" Some time later, after Gwen convinced Max to let her go to the Null Void in his place, she looked at me like I was crazy while Max set her up with a gray suit, a funky looking jetpack, some things that look like grenades, and a device that looks like a watch but was actually a homing beacon. "Yeah, it's all one big alternate dimension. Why?" I went so pale that a ghost may actually have more color in its face than me. "Jake? What's wrong?" Max asked me. I looked straight in Max's eyes. "I have to go in there. Alone. Gwen, you stay out here." That sounded like I was crazy. "What are you even going on about Jake?" She asked me. I sighed. I was hoping I wouldn't have to answer that question, considering I already feel like I should be institutionalized at this point. "Look…" I began. "There's somebody in there who is extremely dangerous. More dangerous than Kevin. If she finds out Ben's associated with me, she'll destroy him. And I don't mean the figurative sense when supervillains want to the 'destroy the world', I seriously mean she will destroy him just to lure me in. You don't stand a chance in there Gwen. You stay out here, I'll save Ben and my sister." I looked at Max, who in turn looked at Gwen. "I understand the sacrifice you're making here, Jake. But Ben is my cousin. No matter how much of a dweeb he is, he's still my cousin. I need to rescue him. Besides, if we both go in there, you can distract that woman while I save Ben and you rescue your sister." I had to admit she did have a pretty good point there. I didn't have the heart to tell her about Joan.

I came out a little bit later dressed as Scorpio and outfitted with a jetpack and one of those watches Max gave to Gwen. "Why are you in costume?" She asked me. "If I go in there, Vilgax might discover my secret. Are you ready to go Gwen? If we get separated, I might not be able to help you, so be careful. And watch out." I nodded to Max to open up the portal and he nodded back. "Now, I can only keep the portal open for about 10 minutes." He started to say. "Once you two go in there, get Ben and get out." I went pale again and my legs wouldn't move. Max placed a hand on my shoulder. "You okay son?" I gulped and hesitated. "Y-yeah…" I took a deep breath. A VERY deep breath. "Okay… I'm… I'm ready…" Gwen and I walked into the portal.

Just as I thought… when I lasted visited the null void after I knocked Vilgax into it in Ohio… it looked exactly like this one… "Oh great…" Gwen looked at me. "Jake? What is going on? You've been paler than a bush since you changed. Don't beat around the bush. Tell me the truth." I sighed. There was no hiding it. "You're pretty smart Gwen. Yeah… I am hiding something. The truth is…" I was hesitating. I didn't want to tell her, but I thought she'd beat it out of me. "The truth is… the girl I'm afraid might find Ben and my sister… the girl I'm trying to find… they're the same." We took off and started looking for Ben. "The Null Void is for the baddest of the bad and you chucked your sister in here? What did she do?" "She…" Before I could answer, I felt that same buzz in my head that would alert me to danger about to come. "Go Gwen! Find Ben!" She didn't move. "Go!" She flew off as I turned and looked for the danger. Spider sense told me to get off the asteroid. 'Huh?' Almost right after that, the asteroid blasted apart, and Joan grabbed me and threw me into another asteroid. "Ow…"

"Hey, Jakey." 'I knew it.' Joan hovered in front of me. "What are you doing here in the Null Void? You don't seem like you belong in here, Mr. Superhero." "I'm trying… to find someone." I pulled myself out of the hole I made in the asteroid after Joan slammed me into it. "Who're you trying to look for?" "I can't tell you." I snuck a look at my pack and back to my sister so she didn't suspect anything. 'I hope that gun isn't busted…' "And why can't you tell me?" I stared her right in the face and reached inside my pack for the gun. "'Cause I already found her!" I quickly took the gun out and shot it at her. Which she dodged… "And what was that?" I can't tell you that either!" She screamed in anger and flew into the asteroid, literally using it as a weapon by throwing me upwards and using it as a bat on my way down. I lost my grip on the gun after I slammed into another asteroid. 'OH NO!' It was destroyed… 'No…!' That was the only way I could save Joan. "OH CRAP!" I saw Joan fly over to me and try punching me, but my hand intercepted the punch, destroying the asteroid I was clobbered into. "Whoa!" I said in surprise. "Joan, are you getting weak?" "Oh shut it!" She tried punching me again with her free hand, but I was able to dodge it. "And slower? You are getting rusty, huh?" I said with a smirk. Maybe I didn't need the gun after all. "Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!" I took the hand I was currently using to grip Joan's fist and sent it straight into her jaw. That knocked her unconscious. I didn't want to take any chances though, so I kicked her with both legs as hard as I could, sending her soaring straight into another asteroid. I flew over with my jetpack to make sure she was still unconscious, which she was. 'Joan's really getting rusty.' "Jake!" I heard Gwen call out to me. "Hurry up! We have a few minutes left!" 'Oh crap!' I used the jetpack and flew out as fast as I could after Ben and Gwen.

Unfortunately, I saw Joan right on my ass. She was about to grab my foot, but I escaped the portal right when it closed. "What happened Jake?" Gwen asked me once I landed. "Did you save your sister?" I was breathing heavily and out of breath. "No… I couldn't save her… it's too late."


	46. Return of a Friend

Scorpion Warrior

Chapter 43

The day after I came back from Niagara Falls after Ben ditched the omnitrix by willingly giving it to the enemy, and got it back after Gwen tricked them with one of the grenades, Scorpio returned to Metropolis.

That morning, I was eating breakfast on the couch, watching a news report of new heroes being indicted the Justice League, when I heard a report on my dad's police scanner. Somebody was robbing a grocery store… "Seriously?" I groaned while I poured my cereal down the drain and made my way to the garage where I grabbed my motorcycle and sped off to an alley so I could get in my costume without any suspicion. I got to the store, where a police car already beat me. "So what's the problem you guys?" One of the policemen turned and looked at me. "Go home, Scorpio. We don't need you here. It was just a simple robbery and the police can handle it." "I keep telling you guys, no you can't!" The manager said, letting out an exasperated sigh. "The guy looked Jamaican and his feet could take Bigfoot off the legendary species list. He went that way." I used my mask's telescopic vision to look in the direction the manager was pointing and saw what looked like a little flea hopping up and down the street. I walked to my motorcycle and looked at the manager. "Don't worry, I got this." Then I sped off in the same direction.

I was following the footprints that dude made, not even paying attention to the road, and I nearly ran into a big tall guy with ginormous legs. I spun out on my motorcycle and seriously ate asphalt. "Hey!" Bigfoot called out. "Watch where you're going!" I noticed he was carrying grocery bags. "Ooh… so you're the thief. I hope you bought those groceries." "Kangorr don't have to buy anything. I'm a bad dude!" He jumped towards me, but I rolled out of the way. But he reeled his foot back and kicked me as hard as he could; I had no time to get out of the way. His kick sent me flying halfway across the lower east side of Metropolis. After I finally came to a stop, which basically meant crashing into a little diner, I saw somebody who looked WAY to familiar to just be a coincidence. "Eric!?"

The guy ran out the diner and I chased after him once I apologized to everybody. "Jake," I heard Batman say on the comm link. "Watchtower computers picked up unauthorized access to police files. You wouldn't happen to know, would you?" "Could've been Robin, I'm not sure." I said completely absentmindedly. "Bit busy, Bats. Gotta go." I was still chasing Eric who ducked into an alleyway, hoping to lose my trail. "Eric, come on out. I know it's you. You can't hide." He stepped out from behind a corner, "Hey Jake…" I looked at him suspiciously. "Wait, this IS you right? You won't try to kill me or blow Metropolis up with a nuke, right? Cause if you're another clone…" He interrupted me, "No Jake. Not a clone this time. It's the real deal. I wasn't supposed to be found out this early. If you want the full explanation, we have to meet at an extremely secure location tomorrow. Completely under the radar, and J'onn will be there to block all mental contact." He then rushed out of the alley, leaving me with WAY more questions than I had to begin with. "What does J'onn have to do with this?"

So all afternoon, I was trying to get a hold of J'onn, and nothing. I was also trying to get access to the Justice League Watchtower, still nothing. I teleported to the team's headquarters in time to see Batman there with a picture of Red Arrow being suspected of being a mole. "Jake, glad you're finally here." Batman said to me. "What's going on?" I asked everybody with a confused look on my face. "If you helped us out rather than rat me out, you'd know that there was a mole in the Justice League." Robin said to me. "That's another reason I contacted you this afternoon, Jake." I looked down at the floor. "Why didn't you answer me?" I didn't want to say my reason for blowing them all off, but Batman would've figured it out eventually. He always does. I sighed and looked at him. "I saw Eric." The team looked confused. I looked at the holographic image of Roy. "Whoa! Roy's the mole?" Aqualad looked stern. "He was the Green Arrow's sidekick. We've known him for years." "Unfortunately, the Roy Harper we have known for the last three years is another Project Cadmus clone." I looked shocked. "Cadmus…"

"That's right!" Robin blurted out. "Wally, Kaldur and I found you in a pod before we found Conner." I looked at the team, then at Batman and Red Tornado. "Do you… you guys don't think I'm a clone, do you?" "There's no way of knowing, Jake Smith." Tornado said to me. "My sensors cannot determine whether you are the clone or the biological organism. An unfortunate side effect of the cloning process."

"The real Speedy was abducted almost immediately after becoming Green Arrow's sidekick. The clone was preprogrammed with a drive to join the Justice League." Batman explained to everyone. "That's why he was so angry when he was denied entry into the Justice League and why he refused to join your team." "It sounds like the Roy you guys know doesn't know what he is." I deduced. "If he was preprogrammed to join us at any cost, why would you let him join if you know he'd betray us?" I asked Batman. "His subconscious program drove him to be worthy of entry into the Justice League. Why wouldn't we let him join? When he had finally joined the League, his secondary programming had kicked in, and he attempted to betray the League to Vandal Savage." Who's Vandal Savage? "Fortunately, I had already figured out he was a clone and Savage was subdued." I felt that familiar buzz in my head that warned me to danger, but I brushed it off. 'It's just us and the team in the cave, so why would there be anything dangerous?' "But Red Arrow has escaped and he is now a fugitive. Consider him armed and dangerous."

"So what happened to the real Roy, Batman?" I asked him. "We don't know. He's not at Cadmus. Unfortunately, we now have to assume that Speedy is dead." The Team looked down. I wanted to know how they felt, but I didn't know GA even had a sidekick. "Then we will find the clone Roy." Aqualad said. "Yeah! With Zatanna's magic, we can–" Robin started to say, but Batman interrupted him. "Red Arrow is a member of the Justice League. We will find him." "Don't sweat the small stuff Bats, I'll find him for you guys." He looked at me. "As I said before, Red Arrow is Justice League. Leave him to us." That just confused the hell out of me and everyone else in the room, except for Red Tornado, since I can't tell what his expressions are. "Uh… Batman?" He ignored me and reached for the comm link in his cowl. "I'm needed at the Watchtower. Tornado, stay with the kids." I was about to ask him something, but he teleported away before I could get it out.

"Uh… dude? Wanna explain something?" Wally said to me. "Batman just gave you the cold shoulder. Didn't you tell us you were already IN the Justice League when we rescued you?" I didn't know what to say. I was more confused then ever. I walked over to the teleporter, but I didn't go anywhere. "What is going on? Computer, teleport me to the Justice League Watchtower." I commanded. "Negative. Scorpio is not a recognized member of the Justice League." It replied. "Yes I am! Override. Scorpio. Designation 11." I was getting more confused by the minute. "Negative. Scorpio is not a recognized member of the Justice League." The computer simply repeated. "I don't get it… I've been a member of the Justice League for five years… how does the computer not recognize me?" I asked out loud. "Scorpio is not a recognized member of the Justice League." "Thanks for pointing that out again…" Before I was able to say anything again, that buzz in my head told me to turn around, so I did… and fell backwards in shock. He was about to choke me?

"Tornado? You alright there?" "I'm sensing a low-level mystic force here." Zatanna said. "I got the same vibe off of Batman too." I looked at her. "You got the same feeling from the Bat? Are you okay Zatanna?" I asked her. "Huh… now that you mention it," Robin mumbled. "He called us kids. He never does that." 'Why would Red Tornado attack us? Unless…' I cycled through the visions my mask has and found a new one that acts like X-ray, but gives me detailed schematics of computers and machines. After a quick scan of Tornado, I noticed something unusual, then I saw the same thing in Tornado's hand. I took it out and held it up. "What is that? And how'd you know about it?" Zatanna asked me. I shrugged for the first answer. "Your dad's magic costume gives me access to different vision settings in my mask. I found one that lets me see into a machine apparently." I gave another look inside Tornado and found that he was offline. "Okay, I have an idea. Robin, KF, Zatanna, and Rocket, you guys stay here and help me with Red Tornado. Kaldur, Artemis, Megan, and Conner, you guys go look for Red Arrow. I have a feeling what's going on has something to do with him and this little thing…" Everybody went to work. "So what'll we do about Big Red?" Wally asked. Zatanna went to the center of the holo-computer and looked up into a little hole in the ceiling. "Has anybody been up there but him?"

I shot a web up into and climbed up. "I've never been a fan of the rope climbing in freshman gym." I quipped. I looked around the room to see what it was. "Can you see anything?" Zatanna called up to me. "Nope. It's dark. Can you give me a hand, Z?" She hovered up into the room and said something in some weird language. "Tel ereht eb thgil!" I think that's what she said. Zatara said the same thing when he gave me my costume: "Evig oiprocS a retteb emutsoc" which would've made a whole lot more sense: Give Scorpio a better costume. Ouch… anyway, looking around, we saw what looked like a hospital room, or something for robots.

"It looks like we put Red here," I pointed to one of the robot beds while looking at it with the machine scanner after we pulled it all from the hole. "And the other dude goes there." Robin continued. I plugged a cord that looks like an HDMI cable from Red's neck to a more human looking robot body. "Pull the switch Igor!" Everybody looked at me weirdly. "Turn the thing on Wally…" A few seconds passed and some displays on a holo-screen showed a download bar. "Good."

All of a sudden, the computer alerted us to Black Canary's entry, which set off my spider sense for some reason. 'Again? It's just the Canary.' She came in with a concerned look on her face, asking us how we were handling… something… she didn't say cause she interrupted herself and demanded to know what we were doing to Red Tornado. "He deactivated himself after he tried to kill me so we thought we'd turn him back on and ask why. Why? Something the matter?" Tornado's new body woke up and told us to get out of the cave? All of a sudden, she screams at us. Not like my mom when I accidentally broke a vase she and my dad got on a honeymoon when I was 3, it was like a high-pitched squeal that gave me the worst possible headache anybody could ever imagine was possible.

Wally and the girls were knocked back by the two halves of Red's new body while Robin jumped out from behind the table. He tried ambushing Canary and fight her, but she gained the upper hand and flipped him out of the way. I was able to concentrate long enough to cover Canary's mouth and then a gas bomb exploded which knocked out Canary, and then a bubble materialized around her. Guess that was Rocket's power. "What's up with Black Canary? Did she snap or something?" There was still A LOT of ringing in my ears, so I asked Zatanna to help me out.

"Black Canary is the least of your worries." Tornado said. I looked at him with a confused look on my face. "We must leave the cave! I'll explain when we're safe, but for now, you all must listen to my instructions to the letter." 'Safe!' "Robin, look for a secure facility. Under the grid." I said to him as Sphere transformed into a big bike, big enough for the team to fit and me to ride. Then I heard the computer warn us about Captain Marvel, Icon, and Doctor Fate about to come in. "Zatanna! Get US under the radar now!" Tornado commanded of Zatanna, and she complied with "Ekam su elbisivni ot yreve enses!" Icon, Captain Marvel, and Doctor Fate appeared and looked around while we all escaped.

After we were safely in the air, Red Tornado gave us our orders. "We must keep radio silence. Let the Supercycle track Superboy and mask our signal. We cannot allow the Justice League to track us." "Right, so now what? How did Batman discover everything about Roy and stop his betraying the Justice League?" I asked Tornado. "He didn't. The entire League is under the complete mental domination of Vandal Savage." He replied. "That's why Canary attacked us!" Robin pointed out. "But what doesn't make any more sense is why Jake couldn't go after Batman." Wally said. I completely forgot about that. "Simple," Tornado replied. "The chip doesn't take hold right away. I knew what was going on the moment the chip touched my neck, so I had to act fast." With half of his face gone from Canary's scream, I couldn't tell what he was feeling (since he's a robot and all), but it looked as if he was sad. Either that, or what he was gonna say next wasn't gonna sit well with me. "Jake… you are no longer a member of the Justice League." I knew it!

"WAIT WHAT? WHY? How?" I asked him, sorta mad, sorta confused. I almost lost my grip on the Supercycle. "In that zero-point-one-six nanoseconds between the chip being implanted and taking control of me, I knew that the only logical thing to do was to hack into the JLA files and remove you from the roster. That way, they wouldn't look for you." I looked out over the city, mostly letting the news sink in, but then thinking of everything that happened. It turns out Eric is alive, I have no idea why I'd find him or how, and now it turns out that the Justice League, minus Tornado and me, have been possessed by someone named Vandal Savage. I shuddered a little thinking about the name. "Red Arrow seems to have been the means to Savage's ends. His methods, referred to as Starro-tech. An alien bio-organism fused with nano-technology and magic. It shuts down the mind's autonomy, allowing Savage to reprogram the individual to suit his needs. Even my inorganic brain was not immune. But the process took the zero-point-one-six nanoseconds to activate. Which allowed me to remove you from the roster, Jake, and activate a sub-routine that shut me down if I was to attempt to hurt or infect another person."

"Oh man… this Starro-tech is powerful. If it could take control of super powered beings, four flavors of aliens, you AND Doctor Fate, then we're in trouble." Robin said. "It defeated all of us without a fight…" I mumbled. "Wouldn't the Starro… mumbo jumbo still control you, Red?" Rocket asked. "No. The Starro-tech is body-specific. It wouldn't have followed me into John Smith, as I am not Red Tornado." We just flew for a while in silence, letting the information sink in and waiting for the Supercycle to find Conner. 'What do we do now?' I heard Robin's voice in my head. 'Whoa! Warn a guy next time, M'gann.' I don't even know how long we were connected. 'Sorry, I just connected us.' She replied. I was distracted after that for thinking about a place that Eric described.

A while later, we all had our plans. Reds Arrow and Tornado and Black Canary would send themselves up to the Watchtower as bait to distract this Vandal Savage dude, while the Team and I infiltrate and take out members of the Justice League as stealthily as possible using some kind of Anti-Starro-tech Robin and Wally cooked up. I couldn't repeat what they said and how it worked since I zoned out and started fell asleep when they started to get into the more technical explanation. "RT did it! Savage doesn't even know we're here." Robin said excitedly inside the mental link Megan has set up within our team. "So what's the plan?" I asked Aqualad.

[Earlier in the Bio-Ship]

"I calibrated the Bio-Ship to help us study this sample of the Starro-tech we got from Red Tornado's body." Megan said. "The information's being beamed to Queen Mera, Vulko, and Drs. Spence and Roquette." Robin continued. "With their resources, the cure should be ready by the time we get to Washington."

[Justice League Watchtower]

"This is the plan." Robin said, interrupting Aqualad and looking at the holographic monitor on his wrist. "Black Canary and the two Reds are distracting Savage, also letting Tornado hack the Watchtower's security system. Meanwhile, we'll split up." I was impressed. With Miss Martian's telepathic link, we're understanding Robin's thoughts. For a kid who didn't want to be leader, he's doing a pretty good job of it. I think it's time we take it to a higher level. "We split into four teams of two. Kid Flash and Artemis, Superboy and I, Miss M and Zatanna, and Aqualad and Rocket. I picked these teams especially for your skills and abilities. Artemis's gas arrows can knock out the Leaguers while KF speeds in and cure-tech's them; Superboy's strong while I'm nimble; Miss M's Martian abilities and Zatanna's magic make for a deadly combination; and Rocket's kinetic bubbles can trap and stall anybody and Aqualad can whip the cure-tech onto the Leaguers. Sorry Jake, you'll have to fly solo. With your powers, you can handle anything that comes your way, and your suit is a magical object conjured up by Zatanna's father." "We have our orders. Let us save our mentors!" Aqualad commanded us to split up and everybody all went their separate ways, tackling all the Justice League members they could handle, and leaving me by myself.

A while later, I was walking through the halls of the Watchtower keeping an eye out for any of the ones that the Team miss. Speaking of which… I felt that always-familiar tingle in my head. The same one that warns me to some kind of threat about to hit me. And this threat was none other than… some dude in a cat suit? When I looked at him, I didn't even move. I was more confused than anything because of the fact that a dude in a cat suit was about to punch me? It was too late. I didn't have enough time to react. He got me square in the jaw. "Ow… dammit that hurt!" I stood up and faced down my opponent as he did the same to me. "Mind telling me who you are?" I asked him. I got no answer, but instead he ran towards me again, trying to throw yet another punch. I dodged it this time, and threw some webs at his ankles to trip him. I got him covered in webbing so he wouldn't get up. I had my mask set to the setting that let me scan Red Tornado since he tried to choke me, and I found one of those Starro-tech chips that Tornado and Black Canary were infected with. 'So… if Robin's right…' I took one of their cure-tech chips out of the pocket I added to the chest behind my own S on my chest [A/N: Not Superman's S, Scorpio's is different. Kinda like Flash's symbol, but… I'll explain once I figure it out for myself] and stuck it on the back of the guy's neck. No sooner than the cure-tech chip kicked in that I saw the Starro-chip disappear from my mask's sight. 'So it does work.'

[Earlier, in Washington]

We had just gotten to Washington D.C. when Robin got word from S.T.A.R. Labs that the cure-tech chips were ready. We were able to land safely without being detected. Once the team was inside, we were greeted by Drs. Spence, Roquette, and Hamilton. "That's Emil!" I called out. "Hello, Scorpio." He said to me after I ran over to him and shook his hand. "How'd your mission go with the gun?" My happiness turned into a bit of a bummer as I told him. "That's a shame… BUT, I just so happen to have a solution. Follow me." As the rest of the team were being briefed on the use of the cure-tech chips, Emil took me to a private room in the back. "I actually heard about that, Jake, so here's my solution." He opened a drawer and showed me a gun that looked exactly like the one I used on Victor and what I attempted to use on Joan. "That's the power sucking gun!" I said. "Exactly. I had it all figured out. Using this gun on someone with as much power would've caused the gun to explode, resulting in the radiation killing every everybody within a 5000 square mile radius. I've designed this gun so that…" I had to interrupt him.

"Wait wait wait… you said killing everybody within pretty much the whole easternmost half of America." He turned around to avoid keeping eye contact with me. "Emil…? A S.T.A.R. Lab scientist shouldn't make a mistake like that." "Where did you last have contact with your sister?" He asked me, still with no eye contact. "In the null void… why?" "You could've thrown the gun away. You would've been able to absorb some of the kryptonite radiation and escape, right?" "No…" I answered solemnly. "I had a friend and an ally in there as well. It would've killed them? The other half of that would've been a bust!" I started to get annoyed with his carefree attitude. Is that what I was like? Yikes… "ANYWAY!" He continued as he turned around and met my eye again. "I've designed this gun so it had more durability, but you can't use it on multiple people. I designed so it only works on someone of her level. And only her. If you try and absorb more power, it definitely WILL explode. So only use it on Joan." The look in his eyes told me that he was being dead serious this time. I gulped a little, but met his seriousness with my own. I took the gun and stuck it in a pocket in my backpack. "Oh, and don't damage it too much. It'll lose it's durability." I nodded to him in agreement. "But how would I know if I'd ever need it again?" I asked him. "You can never be too careful." I thanked Emil and walked back towards the rest of the group.

[In the Watchtower]

I started swinging in the direction of another taller hallway I found myself in for people who could fly or so they could practice flight. Before exiting, I saw a bit of a green glow off to the side. I zoomed in with the mask so I could get a good look at who was giving it off, and saw another Green Lantern known as Guy Gardner. "Oh crap!" I called out as I realized Guy was a Green Lantern. I pushed myself back into the flight room and jumped up a few feet above the door to stick to it. The second I did that, Guy comes far in to the room and looks around, allowing me to drop in behind him like a ninja and stick him with a cure-tech chip.

Assuming that Robin's team conked out most, if not all, of the Justice League, I had two more to hit: Plastic Man's partner, Elongated Man. 'His name is so dumb.' I thought to myself right before I hit Elongated Man rounding a corner. 'Oh crap!' Right when he saw me, he coiled his body around mine and squeezed the life out me. Good thing I planned ahead and stuck one of the cure-tech chips in my mouth, which I then spit right on his neck, which conked him out. "Good god that tasted nasty!" I called out after he passed out.

The last one I needed to conk out was my own girlfriend: Karen Starr. And speaking of… the buzz warned me that she was right behind me. I backflipped over her, watching her sail right into a wall, then I threw a chip right at her neck and conked her out too. After kissing her cheek, I ran off.

[After the trip to S.T.A.R. Labs]

We were flying in the Bio-Ship towards Mount Justice on my order. "This'll work. Red Tornado and I teleport to the Watchtower. Tornado hacks the security systems and let the rest of you in." "But it makes no sense." After curing Black Canary, Roy, and Red Tornado, Canary woke up. "Why you? Take Roy and I with you." I looked at her confused. "Actually, that's not a bad plan." Robin piped up. "Instead, the three of you go, while Jake comes with us." Now I looked at him. "It makes sense. The first time, Tornado took you off the roster. If you go up there, Savage will know. Besides, I got a plan, and it involves you going up there. Canary, he still thinks you're infected, and he already knows all of you." I simply shrugged. "Can't argue with all that."

I looked at the three Justice Leaguers. "Once we land, you'll port up to the Watchtower. These Starro-tech chips are a combination of organic, scientific, and magical resources put together. He's bound to be partnered with a magician up there who can monitor… a whole lot of stuff that I haven't figured out yet…" Everybody laughed at my failure; I laughed it off. "So you mean somehow, he's gonna know that you guys aren't infected. Once he figures that out, he'll restrain you and try to reinfect you. You guys try and pretend you're infected to stall until we conk out as many of the truly infected leaguers as we can." Megan landed the Bio-Ship at the entrance of the mountain. "Are you sure this is going to work?" Red Tornado asked me when we put him back in his original body. "With Canary's… ear shattering scream…" I didn't want to relive the moment when I almost went deaf. "Your tornadoes, and Roy's skill, you guys'll be fine. Robin'll monitor everything. Once we're good to go, we'll set the plan in motion." They all nodded in agreement and walked into the mountain.

[Leading up to the events of just about an hour ago]

I combined x-ray and techno sight together to make sure all the people I chipped was just that. But I saw a big glow somewhere around the main hall. "What…?" After about half an hour of trying to figure out where I was since I've never been to this part of the Watchtower, I finally found the main hall, along with the rest of the team. "Hey! You guys finally get your guys?" Aqualad nodded. "We cured Flash, Green Arrow, and my king, but we almost lost them in the cargo bay."

"So YOU guys are the people breaking my toys!" An annoyingly annoying voice suddenly called out. "Good god! What was that?" I called out after getting my sense back. "You keep breaking my toys!" I turned around and saw a kid in a suit with really stupid hair flying pretty high in the air in the Watchtower who was looking at orange circles hovering in front of him. One of those circles even showed the same number of Justice Leaguers… minus me, of course. "Your toys?" I called out to him. "These guys are human beings! Sorta…!" Completely boned that in the end. "Oh yeah? Well now they're my toys! And The Light is going to use them to control the world!" An angry look came over my face. "And there's nothing you can do about it!" He ended that threat with an evil laugh, which stopped soon after when he noticed me launching myself up towards him like a torpedo. The weird thing is, he didn't seem scared at all. The same look I saw on him earlier stayed the same. Then the spider sense buzzed in my head. "Oh crap!" The next thing I know, there's a sharp kick to my lower back. There was Superman, shooting towards me, but I happened to get myself out of the way by pulling myself out of the way with webs before he broke my entire ribcage. I saw one of the things the guy with the cat on his shoulder was looking at; there were six figures left. "We chipped everybody… but Superman, Batman, Martian Manhunter, John Stewart, and Hawkgirl… am I forgetting anybody?" I leapt out of the way to avoid Superman slamming down on me.

The other Justice League founders, except for Flash, all showed up and everybody started fighting. Sidekick versus hero… almost. Some of the founders didn't have any. Some tall woman tried lassoing Robin, but got blocked by Rocket's bubble, then surrounded her with the same bubble. I leapt over to her after dodging Hawkgirl's mace. "Will the bubble hold?" "My bubbles are made of pure kinetic energy. She keeps punching them, she'll never escape from it. But I'm a sitting duck here." "Who is she anyway?" I looked over and saw Hawkgirl flying towards us. "Watch out!" I said to her then leapt back over to Hawkgirl, sending my knee right into her chin, then spinning around and roundhouse kicking her, which slammed her to the floor. Robin stuck a chip on her neck and one of the little blips on the flying dude's screen blipped out. Then oh so familiar buzz in my head warned me to something. I leapt up and avoided John tackling me, but then I shot a web holding another chip at his neck, konking him out and leaving J'onn, the woman trying to punch her way out of Rocket's bubble, Superman, and Batman.

Robin fought against Bats, Conner against Superman, and M'gann against J'onn. Rocket opened a small hole for me to flick the chip for the black haired lady. It hit her, which made her pass out as well. My head was buzzing like mad, but I ignored it since there were no other threats besides Superman, Batman, and J'onn. Pretty soon, they were all conked out as well and the sidekicks started celebrating. 'They're all celebrating too early.' Robin stopped once he noticed my face. Then M'gann stopped. Soon, Rocket and Conner stopped as well. Wally, Kaldur, and Artemis got here soon after. I noticed that Scarface and Witchboy are still here. "If we won… why haven't you escaped yet?"

Witchboy simply smirked as he made all those monitors disappear. My head was still buzzing. "Okay, Witchboy. We cured the Justice League from your control. Care to explain the feeling to danger I'm STILL getting?" I saw his eyes twitch, which wasn't wild. It was controlled. He was looking at something. 'Wha?' I looked towards where he was looking at, which I noticed that the Young Justice League weren't there. "What's going on? What happened to everyone?" I was looking around, keeping my guard up, trying to make the threat seem less threatening, while paying attention to the buzz. I finally leapt out of the way before the last person I'd ever want to fight pounded my face into the Watchtower's steel floor. I turned to Witchboy with an angry look on my face, "What… did… you… do…" Was all I said to them. "You think we released Joan to get an upper hand against you, little Jake?" Well… crap. 'They know who I am. Maybe I can deny it.' Before I knew it, she took off my mask. 'So much for that. Wait… maybe…' I backflipped over her and threw one of the Cure-tech chips at her neck. "Oh no…" Was all I could say before I realized that the chip had no effect on her. "Wait wait wait… you thought they were controlling me?" Joan said to me as she turned around. 'Megan, you awake?' 'Yeah… I am now. Ow… what hit us?' Megan sounded like she took more of a beating than Superman gave her when she knocked out J'onn. 'I'm gonna need you to wake up Wally.' 'I'm already here Jake. What do you need?' 'I need you to run to my apartment and pick up the power draining gun.' Wally nodded and sped to the teleporter. "Hey!" Witchboy called out. "Leave him, Klarion. Anybody who flees from battle isn't worth our time." Scarface said to him. "Hey… you're right," Klarion quipped with a grin. "This fight's too fun to watch to worry about the sidekicks anyway."

I was fighting Joan, but strangely, I was keeping up with her. "What's the matter Joan? You'd have broken all my ribs by now." "Thanks to my time in the null void, I've lost some of my strength." I launched her up the air and tossed her to the side using the same move I used on Hawkgirl. "I can still kick your ass though!" I jumped up in the air right as she got to me, then used her shoulders as a springboard to get up to the wall, then pushed off and tackled using the same technique I used to tackle people in freshman football. She sprung up and tried to break my neck with a flying kick, but I jumped forward and dodged her. "Jake!"

[8 minutes ago]

'I need you to run to my apartment and pick up the power draining gun.' Wally nodded and sped to the teleporter, which ended him up at the mountain in DC. "Oh great! Good thing I've got fuel with me!" Wally sped off towards Metropolis and got to my apartment door in less than a minute; then he started rapidly knocking on the door. "Mr. S! Mr. S! You in here?" My dad opened the door and scowled at Wally. "Who are you?" "Wally West sir. I'm Jake's friend. Need to pick something up for him. Kinda in a rush here…!" My dad stepped aside to let him in. "Okay, I remember now. Because of the other Jake." Wally sped around and tried looking for the gun, but he couldn't find it. "What are you looking for?" "Jake called it a power draining gun." My dad walked into my room and grabbed the box that I stored the gun in and gave it to Wally. He thanked my dad then sped off.

[Now]

"Jake!" Wally called out after tossing the gun in the air. "Head's up!" I took Joan being distracted as an opportunity to give her face a good old right hook. Then I snagged the gun out of the air with a web and caught it, aiming it right at Joan. "Well? Any last words?" She looked at me and simply said this, "You wouldn't hurt a poor, defenseless girl, would you?" I ignored her face and shot her with the gun anyway, finally taking away all her powers for good. "No, but then again, you aren't poor or defenseless." After the gun sucked her dry, I dropped the gun. "Maybe now you and your dad can have a normal life as a normal family." I offered a hand out to her. "Why are you helping me? I tried to kill you three times." "'Tried' being the operative word here. You don't have anymore powers." She took my hand, but I immediately flipped her over and trapped her with my webs. "But you are gonna have to go to jail because of what you did."

"Come on everybody, why are we all standing around?" I called out when I got to the Watchtower. "It's almost New Year's. Let's celebrate!" "Yeah. We saved the Justice League." Wally called out. Just like I said, the Watchtower computer brought up a clock display and mentioned the time. [It was midnight. Everybody had somebody. Wally had Artemis, Conner had Megan, and Zatanna even decided to give Robin a big New Year's smooch. Rocket kissed Kaldur on the cheek; I guess that still counts. Too bad my girlfriend was…] "JAKEY!" [unconscious… Jakey? That's my name. Oh crap…] Karen flew over to us and tackle hugged me. "OW! RIBS! RIBS!" My ribs were still bruised from the squeeze Elongated Man gave me. "Don't squeeze me so hard Karen…" I said, trying to put a smile on my face behind the pain. "But then I wouldn't be able to give you your thanks-for-saving-my-brain kiss." Then she gave me a big kiss.

Some time later, a few members of the Justice League were at the meeting table along with . Kaldur, Aquaman, Batman, Robin, Black Canary, Red and Green Arrows, Red Tornado, and Captain Marvel were there. As was I, even though I'm not Justice League anymore. Roy… or his clone, I should say… was moping about how he wasn't a hero, a sidekick, or what. He branded himself a traitor. "Come on, Roy. Don't be so hard on yourself." I said to him. "Thanks, Jake, but… I gotta figure this out. He got up and walked out. Everybody except for Batman and me got up to go, but I asked Robin to stay. "What do you mean?" "Jake and I talked it over, and we both agree that after your performance in this whole mess, you should be able to lead the team." Kaldur decided to stay and he sat back down. Robin was speechless. "Say something dude!" We heard Wally call out. The rest of the team came over here. "I… I don't know…" "Come on, Robin, don't be speechless." Artemis said, trying to get him to say something. "I'm not speechless. I'm not some whelmed teenager trying to ask his cheerleader crush to prom. I'm saying I don't know if I could lead a team." I looked at him and laughed a little. "You certainly led us when we saved the team. You were brilliant. You and Conner, Artemis and Wally, Megan and Zatanna, and Rocket and Aqualad. You deserve this Robin!" He still didn't say anything.

The next afternoon, Joan went to the court and sat before the judge. It was her decision, since nobody was suing her. She decided to go lenient on the sentence. She gave Joan a month, but only cause the judge had a good day. "What?" She asked in surprise. "But what about all the stuff I did?" "Scorpio had a good defense. Can't argue with a superhero who could hang me up by my robe, right? He showed me the proof that you have no more powers, so I'm only giving you a month sentence." Joan gave a smile for the first time since I've known her. She actually looked relieved. "Besides, I had a good day. Why would I ruin yours?"

Later that night, I convinced J'onn to connect Eric and me in a psychic dream. "Well Eric, this is the most secure place I could think of. Now spill. You said you couldn't be found out 'this early' and that J'onn was connected. What's going on?" He simply sighed. "Remember five years ago, we were already about a few months in to our jobs at the Daily Planet. I was good enough to get this one job from Perry. I got wrapped up in a conspiracy and I needed to get out. The only way I could get out of danger was to fake my own death. That wasn't my body in the drug dealers' hideout that day, it was J'onn." I was confused. "But… J'onn's alive." "Yes, but that was after Bizarro's attack." J'onn cut in. "I was there in the warehouse, but I got in over my head, so I asked J'onn to help me out. He got me out of there before Bizarro attacked. As usual, he thought he was doing the right thing by burning everything, and I guess, in a way, he actually was for once. But Bizarro's heat vision would've killed J'onn, so after he attacked, J'onn played possum for me and pretended to be my burnt body." A tear fell down my eye. "I'm sorry I couldn't tell you, but nobody could know. J'onn was the only one I could trust at the time." "I trusted you with my secret though…" I said to him. There was a bit of anger and betrayal in my voice. "I know… I'm sorry. But you could've easily been in a situation where a psychic, or someone like J'onn, could've read your mind. Are you mad?" There was a big smile on my face. "No, I'm not. I'm just glad you're alive."

J'onn was about to cut the connection, before I got confused again. "But wait… what about when you threatened to destroy Metropolis with a nuke?" "That… was a clone of me who was supposed to die in a massively public display because the guy who belonged to the conspiracy didn't believe my death, so I went to S.T.A.R. Labs and volunteered myself for a cloning project." "That WAS a clone?" I was shocked, cause I thought that when Eric called me out for blood, I thought Ra's Al Ghul revived him. "I thought Ra's Al Ghul revived you." "Who? What made you think someone revived me?" Eric was confused now. "I looked inside your coffin and…" He interrupted me before I finished. "You dug up my coffin?" Ooh… that's right. He doesn't know about the powers I got after the Bizarro situation… "I kept developing my powers. Some time after you died, I got x-ray vision, then used it to look inside your coffin after your clone went into our apartment." "That's so cool! Can you do it now?" I shook my head no. "I don't have them anymore. I went to another universe and somehow got the powers of a local superhuman there. Anyway, explain how the clone wanted to destroy the city." "The clone was already meant to die. We told him why, he went nuts, escaped, and then… well, you know."

There was nothing left to talk about, so J'onn cut the connection after I forgave Eric for all that.


End file.
